Orders of the Day — Cotton Industry

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 9 March 1955.

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Photo of Mr Harold Wilson Mr Harold Wilson , Huyton 12:00, 9 March 1955

I thought that the right hon. Gentleman was going to say that. He knows perfectly well that that is a completely phoney use of statistics. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Oh, yes, and I will now proceed to prove it. The high import figures which he quoted in 1949–50 were coming in at a time when Lancashire could not meet anything like the orders. The high orders which came in in 1951–52 were connected with the rearmament programme and were only placed abroad when the Government had satisfied themselves that Lancashire could not meet them. Therefore, to take the average over six years is a completely inappropriate way of looking at this problem.