Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 April 1956.
Mr Geoffrey Stevens
, Portsmouth Langstone
12:00,
18 April 1956
I am not a betting type. Whether that is a virtue or not, I do not know. Despite that, I disagree with the hon. Member for Keighley (Mr. Hobson), in that I very much like the Chancellor's proposals for Premium Bonds. It is quite ridiculous to bury one's head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend there is no such thing as a gambling instinct amongst the people of this country. Since tens of millions of pounds go to Little-woods and other pools—and I see no harm in it—it seems to me to be sound to take advantage of that natural instinct of gambling for the benefit of the Treasury. It cannot do any harm, and it may do good.
I am glad to have this opportunity so early in this debate on the Budget of saying that, with three reservations, I like the Budget, and that I am going to give it my vigorous support. There are two major factors in the inflation from which we have suffered since the war. The first is insufficient saving, and the second is excessive Government expenditure. The Chancellor has tackled both those problems boldly.
The right hon. Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Gaitskell), the Leader of the Opposition, in his brief and valedictory remarks yesterday, chided my right hon. Friend with not having reviewed 1955. I think the President of the Board of Trade dealt fairly fully with 1955 in his remarks today, and I do not want to add to that except to point out once again that in 1955 most of the people of this country enjoyed the highest standard of living in our history. That fact—and it is a fact—is a tribute to the financial policies pursued for four years by the Lord Privy Seal when he was Chancellor of the exchequer.
The right hon. Member for Huyton (Mr. G. Wilson) did not seem to agree with that. He wrote an article which was published in the Daily Herald yesterday, and I want to quote from it. I shall quote the paragraph so that I may not be accused of taking words out of their context. He said:
For over four years we have seen the Tory Government fritter away the solid gains that resulted from Socialist policies after the war.
Just for a moment I want to look at some of those solid gains.
In that statement is the suggestion, which the hon. Member for Keighley made also just now, that without rigid controls and the absence of a planned economy we are bound to have trouble, but that on the other hand if we have physical controls and import licences and things of that sort everything in the garden will be lovely and we shall go on having those solid gains. The quick answer to that has already been given—the dollar crisis and devaluation in September, 1949. I want to take the matter a little further.
Among solid gains the most important are savings, without which we cannot live or progress.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
The "Leader of the Opposition" is head of "Her Majesty's Official Opposition". This position is taken by the Leader of the party with the 2nd largest number of MPs in the Commons.
The Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
