Budget Proposals and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 20 April 1955.

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Photo of Sir Herbert Butcher Sir Herbert Butcher , Holland with Boston 12:00, 20 April 1955

The right hon. Gentleman said that there is a substantial rise in the volume of our dollar exports. That, in the main, has been due to the fact that we have had to import large quantities of coal, because of the failure of the nationalised coal industry to give us the coal we need. A large proportion of the dollars expended could have been saved, if production by the nationalised coal industry had been higher.

The right hon. Gentleman referred to the rise in prices as the biggest inflation that the Stock Exchange has ever known. I thought him a little forgetful of his right hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Mr. Dalton), who is now sitting on the Opposition Front Bench. If the right hon. Member for Bishop Auckland will allow me to say so, I have always had feelings of friendship for him. After all, a man who can nearly succeed in winning Holland with Boston cannot be entirely bad. But to be forgotten by his right hon. Friend as the architect of the greatest and largest inflation this country has seen since the South Sea Bubble really was unkind.