Budget Proposals and Economic Survey

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 April 1950.

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Photo of Mr Hugh Gaitskell Mr Hugh Gaitskell , Leeds South 12:00, 24 April 1950

As the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Woodford (Mr. Churchill) has said, we have enjoyed a number of excellent maiden speeches during this Debate, and they have had one great advantage to all of us in that what was said was generally novel and less familiar. I should like to refer only to two of those speeches, because those who made them have been personal acquaintances of mine for some considerable time.

My hon. Friend the Member for Gloucestershire, South (Mr. Crosland) adopted a rather new line in deciding that he could be non-controversial and yet attack the Government. He did, and, to use his own words, he "threw down upon the Front Bench some pebbles." Some maiden speakers on the Opposition side of the House appeared to me to misunderstand this example and to suppose that they, in turn, were entitled to make non-controversial speeches, equally throwing pebbles at the Government. I am bound to say that the proper analogy would be for them to throw their pebbles at the Front Bench opposite, and I hope that in future maiden speeches that course will be taken.

The other speech to which I want to refer is that of the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Mr. Ashton), whom I can remember many years ago as being the first Englishman to make a century against that famous Australian touring team in 1921. Although I myself was singularly bad at cricket, somehow or other I took the greatest possible interest in the play of those who could play. I found myself some years later attending the wedding of the hon. Member, and after that wedding I became a rather close relative by marriage, and I was therefore able to take a certain fraternal pride and interest, though strictly non-political, in the hon. Gentleman's speech. One of the features which unite us here—and I had better say this, because a good deal of what I am going to say will not unite us—is that even relatives who differ politically can agree to enjoy personal friendships.

The right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition has given us a somewhat familiar speech, and I think that during the election some of these phrases were used, and indeed some of the figures as well. We always enjoy the right hon. Gentleman's speeches, which are perhaps more lively than they are thoughtful, more witty than they are relevant, but always entertaining, and sometimes they entertain those on this side of the House rather more than hon. Members on the other side. We know that because, although the right hon. Gentleman can study the faces over here, we can study the faces on the other side, and occasionally, I must tell him, looks of great anxiety pass over them as he is speaking.

We are interested to find that the right hon. Gentleman describes as the "dissipation of our resources" all the great expenditure on the social services in the last few years. We are interested, too, to discover, after a different opinion had been put forward by other Members on the Front Bench opposite, that the party opposite have evidently decided to oppose the proposals of my right hon. and learned Friend for dealing with the cases of Sir John Black and Mr. Lord. We know that it is their intention to let these two gentlemen get away with it, and we cannot understand why that should be so, if they claim to take the same view fundamentally on this issue as we do. We know, too, that they are anxious to relieve as soon as possible, above all things, the Surtax payer.

I thought the right hon. Gentleman was getting rather far afield with his milch cow illustration. I keep no cows myself—