Orders of the Day — Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 November 1952.

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Photo of Mr Alfred Robens Mr Alfred Robens , Blyth 12:00, 10 November 1952

My hon. Friend the Member for Houghton-le-Spring (Mr. Blyton) did well to remind us of what is taking place on the Continent of Europe in the setting up of the Coal and Steel Community, because that is a matter which is going to affect us very considerably in this country in the years that lie ahead. It is perfectly clear that the competition in both these industries will be strengthened by reason of what is taking place now in Europe and the federalising of European production in the basic industries. Much as I should like to develop that theme myself tonight, I am afraid that there are other things which I must touch upon, and I hope that my hon. Friend will forgive me if I do not follow his argument more closely.

We have now entered into and almost completed the fifth day's debate on the Queen's Speech, and so far there has not emerged any sign of a concrete and positive policy from the Government to deal with the most important matter that faces this country—its economic stability. I can understand that because, unfortunately, we have Ministers incapable of doing the tasks which are theirs, who have a sytem of overlordship which must narrow their own line of action, and who are led by a man who did not know the difference in weight between a millstone costing £300 million and a millstone costing £900 million. Then we had a few days ago the fatuous complacency of the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade. What did he say? He said: If the economic policy of Her Majesty's Government is to be judged by the simple test of whether it works … I suggest that policy has hitherto proved a remarkably successful one."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 5th November, 1952; Vol. 507, c. 169.] We shall see.

Before I develop that argument, I should like to remedy an omission at the beginning of my speech, I wish to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee, East (Mr. G. M. Thomson) on delivering an excellent maiden speech this afternoon. It was one to which we listened with great interest, and he has whetted our appetite to listen to more of his speeches in the future.

The President of the Board of Trade says that the policy has hitherto proved a remarkably successful one. What has happened? All that has really happened is that the drain-away of reserves has been stopped and there has been a small increase in the gold and dollar reserve. That is not new. It has happened before. We have had this kind of crisis before and we have had to meet it, but the Labour Government did not meet it with the weapons that the present Government have used to meet it and with the disastrous results which are following the action, or the lack of action, of the present Government.

What has emerged beyond any shadow of doubt is that the back-benchers on the Government side of the House have taken off the sheep's clothing which they donned during the General Election and they now stand as the wolves with their teeth bared and with the axe in their hands ready to cry out—[Interruption.] I should have thought it was possible for them to have their teeth bared and to carry an axe at the same time. The teeth are bared in order to snarl at the Opposition and the axe is to be used to slash Government expenditure.

Scarcely a back-bencher who has spoken today has not made it his theme that there must be a slashing of Government expenditure. One hon. Gentleman was challenged as to where the Government should make the cuts. What has been the reply to that?—nothing; that is to be left to be developed later on. We know perfectly well where the cuts will come. They will come, as we said during the General Election, on the social services and by way of a lowering of the standards of millions of ordinary men and women in this country.

Why have we been able to stop the drain on our reserves and to have an increase in the gold and dollar reserves, which we all welcome? Surely the President of the Board of Trade does not claim that that is the result of policy. There was no policy to do that. It has happened because the price of imports has fallen and the price of exports has kept up fairly well. That single factor alone makes a difference of about £200 million.

What has happened to stocks? While we were in power we carried out an enormous task in building up stocks. It was vital for many reasons that we should do so. What has happened to those stocks now? Have we been living on the fat which was stored up by the Labour Government? Are stocks increasing? Are stocks diminishing? Perhaps we may be told when the hon. Gentleman replies or, if not, perhaps we shall get the answer from the Chancellor of the Exchequer tomorrow.

There has been a substantial reduction in the volume of imports. That was a policy of the Government; it was directly the Government's work. The Government's monetary policy has also had the effect of slowing down capital development in industry and agriculture. When the President of the Board of Trade says that his policy has proved remarkably successful, that is only because of the heavy price that our people are paying today and will pay even more so in the future.

In an excellent speech the other day, my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Central (Mr. Short) showed that, so far from the cupboard being bare when the Labour Party left office, the Government inherited a nicely stocked pantry. He said that when they took office the Government inherited 5,489 more factories than there were in this country in 1945 and 630,000 more school places than existed in 1945.

Those two things are vitally important in this country. Unless we have new factories well equipped, we shall not be able to meet the industrial demands of the future, which will be for good quality articles of the right price. When old traditional markets go, new ones have to be sought—the hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for Macclesfield (Air Commodore Harvey) referred to the ex- port or jet-engined aircraft and things of that kind—which means that we shall have need of more highly skilled people in this country. We shall not get highly skilled people if we put the boys and girls of this country into classes of 40, 50 and 60 in their younger years.

What have the Government done? They have slashed factory building by half. In the first half of 1951 the Labour Government had approved £54 million worth of factory building; in the first half of 1952 the present Government had approved only £29 million worth. In the first half of 1951 we had approved £28 million worth of building for schools; in the first half of 1952, this Government had so slashed school building that there is only approval for £13 million worth. They have cut hospital maintenance and repair by 25 per cent. I say that they are gambling away Britain's future for the political need of building a few more houses.