Orders of the Day — Budget Proposals and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 21 April 1955.

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Photo of Mr Ralph Assheton Mr Ralph Assheton , Blackburn West 12:00, 21 April 1955

I do not suppose that the people in Gloucester know as much about the textile trade as we do in Lancashire. I can only suggest that the hon. and learned Member for Gloucester (Mr. Turner-Samuels) consult his hon. Friend the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman), who is sitting near him, when he will learn a great deal more about the cotton trade than he knows at present.

It want to come to another aspect of the problem, and that is the question of imports from overseas. In Lancashire, we are increasingly anxious to hear the decision of the Government. I know what an extraordinarily difficult problem it is for the Government to solve. It is no good pretending that it is an easy problem, because it affects not only our trading interests all over the world, but agreements which we have made from the Ottawa Agreement onwards.

No one can suggest that this problem can be easily or rapidly solved. Every hon. Member of the Committee is under an obligation to contribute what he can to a solution of the problem and not carp and criticise the whole time. The people in Lancashire, who are understanding, know that is a difficult problem and that the Government are trying to solve it and they are not likely to take the same sort of attitude displayed by the right hon. Member for Bishop Auckland.

I want to end—