Orders of the Day — Economic Position

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 30 July 1952.

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Photo of Sir Alexander Spearman Sir Alexander Spearman , Scarborough and Whitby 12:00, 30 July 1952

I do not think there was really any connection between what I said and what the hon. Gentleman now says. It is rather like the old saying that all admirals are sailors but all sailors are not admirals. I am saying that the job we have to do is to produce the goods, not that we would like people to buy but that they actually will buy. At the present time, although orders are falling off, the best demand is probably to be had in engineering goods, and I am afraid I have to say—and I say it with obvious reluctance against the feeling of my own party—that the priority given to housebuilding is preventing us from producing as much goods as it is possible to produce. The difficulty about which the hon. Gentleman intervened has nothing to do with how much we can produce; it concerns how much we can sell, which is another matter altogether.