Clause 35. — (Amendment of National Loans Act, 1939.)

Part of Orders of the Day — FINANCE (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 June 1956.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Cyril Osborne Mr Cyril Osborne , Louth Borough 12:00, 18 June 1956

I ask the Committee to look at this matter from a production point of view and from an economic point of view, although, first, I should like to say that whilst I do not regard it exclusively from the moral point of view, I do not minimise the importance of the moral issue.

To certain of my very dear friends this is a matter of very high principle, on which they feel deeply. Hon. Members, however, on both sides of the Committee, would be fooling themselves if they imagined that the whole country felt the same way. The bulk of the people no longer regard gambling in the moral sense that their grandfathers did. If, for instance, a man who plays a game of golf plays for who is to pay for tea, he thinks nothing of it, whether he goes to church or chapel. The strength of the moral issue is not nearly as great as it was fifty years ago. Hon, Members opposite would be doing their cause a great deal of harm if they over-exaggerated that point of view. I do not, however, deny that it exists and is sincerely and strongly held in certain quarters.