Electricity Supplies (Rural Areas)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 June 1953.

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Photo of Mr David Robertson Mr David Robertson , Caithness and Sutherland 12:00, 19 June 1953

I am perfectly certain that the right hon. Member for Derby, South (Mr. Noel-Baker) did not wish to mislead the House, but he stated that as a result of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, re-population had started in the glens. That is not true. Unfortunately, the reverse is still the case, though I think it will come about. These were the kind of claims which were made when the Board was brought into being.

The great county of Sutherland, which, together with another county, I have the honour to represent, has gone down in population to less than that of the average English village. We have tremendous room there, and I think that the magnificent work which Mr. Tom Johnston and his colleagues are doing will help as time goes on, but we Scots and the Board of Trade must help to make the Development Area a success.

There was an exchange between the Minister and the right hon. Member for Belper (Mr. G. Brown) concerning who is doing best, private enterprise or the nationalised board, and I detected the same thing in other speeches. Figures were given by the right hon. Member for Derby, South that many more connections were being made under nationalisation. Is that not mainly due to the hunger of the people, owing to their inability to buy imported foods, thus bringing prosperity to the farmers during and since the war, a prosperity that was denied to them in the hideous days of unrestricted free-trade?