Debate on the Address [Second Day]

Part of Orders of the Day — Queen's Speech – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 October 1958.

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Photo of Mr John Mackie Mr John Mackie , Galloway 12:00, 29 October 1958

I accept that. It was apparent from the speech of the hon. Member for Ince who spoke of his experiences in years gone by when he was unemployed and walking the roads of Lancashire unsuccessfully trying to find employment.

However, while agreeing that this is bound to be a party political issue at the next General Election—the right hon. Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede) seems to agree—I hope that it will be reduced to the minimum, because this is not a matter around which party political passions should unduly revolve.

It is not only in industrial Scotland that it is regretted that unemployment is beginning to rear its ugly head. I represent an almost completely agricultural constituency and the biggest centre in my division, Stranraer, numbers only some 7,000 people. During the Second World War it came to occupy a very important position. Ports in the south of England had been bombed and Southampton was out of action, and Cairnryan became the great port of the Western Approaches for the landing of American troops. As I said, I have not come to the debate armed with a great many figures, but I believe that about 2 million American troops were landed at that port, which was built in 1941 or 1942 specially to accommodate that traffic.

In the last few months I have had occasion to take deputations to the War Office in connection with the danger of the port going out of action so far as the War Office is concerned, and I am in constant touch with the War Office on the matter. I am not trying to make points against those who are responsible for controlling affairs at the War Office today, but T want to show that there is a distinct danger of unemployment there, fortunately not on the scale that the hon. Member for Motherwell has quoted but still on a very serious scale for a small agricultural constituency.

Between 300 and 500 men may be thrown out of work. The hon. Member for Motherwell may not think that that is a very serious matter. Such a small number of people are as nothing compared with the numbers concerned in industrial Scotland and the industrial belts of Great Britain as a whole, but as the hon. Member is a humanitarian and is imbued with a deep desire to do what he can for his fellow countrymen he should realise that I and many of my hon. Friends feel just as deeply about these small pockets of unemployment as do hon. Members opposite.

Neither the hon. Member for Mother-well nor the hon. Member for Ince referred to the hopes contained in the Gracious Speech about the resolve of Her Majesty's present advisers to do all they can to maintain a high and stable level of employment. Surely they realise that the Government have now embarked upon an expansionist policy. The restrictions which, for about seven years have been laid upon the borrowing of money and the obtaining of credit, are now to be almost completely lifted. I believe that that is wise. I only wish that it had been possible to take this action earlier. The restrictions made it very uncomfortable for many people, especially those in agriculture. Nevertheless, if it had not been for the very hard things which the Conservative Governments had to do in the way of the restriction of credit and in making it more difficult to borrow money, the £ sterling today might not be in such a healthy condition. Indeed, that point has been made by more than one hon. Member opposite.

I do not want to go all through the Gracious Speech, although it would be quite possible for me to do so, as there do not appear to be many hon. Members who want to speak. I do not wish to inflict myself upon hon. Members opposite, or to weary them unduly with my efforts, but I want to say a word about that part of the Gracious Speech which refers to Scotland. I suppose that what I am about to say will promote a good deal of mirth on the part of the hon. Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Ross) because the hon. Member for Govan (Mr. Rankin) made great play about it in his speech last night. I refer to the part of the Gracious Speech which says: A Bill will be laid before you for the protection and control of deer in Scotland. Towards the end of the last Parliament I was lucky enough to draw a place in the Ballot, but not sufficiently lucky to draw a good place, being placed twentieth—at the very bottom. I was therefore in a position to bring forward a Bill, and at the suggestion of a very old Member of this House who has now passed to his rest, and for whom many of us have a very warm regard—the late Mr. Charles Williams, former Member for Torquay—I brought forward a Bill for the protection of deer in Scotland. It was at the bottom of the list, and it would not have got far in any case, but even so it was not pleasing to the Scottish Office. I am delighted to know that the Scottish Office now intends to bring in a Bill on similar lines.

When the Labour Government were in power I was also lucky enough to win a place in the Ballot, although again I was at the bottom of the list. I then brought in a Bill with regard to river pollution in Scotland. The lines upon which it was drawn were not welcomed by the Scottish Office at the time, presided over as it was by the Socialists. They indicated that it was too big a matter to be dealt with by way of a Private Member's Bill. However, just as the Tory Government are to bring in a Bill dealing with deer, the Socialist Government brought in a Bill dealing with river pollution. It was a very good Bill, and it has done a great deal of good for the rivers of Scotland.

I do not accept the argument put forward by hon. Members opposite that the proposed Bill concerning deer in Scotland is being brought forward simply to satisfy the rapacious desires of Scottish landlords. It is being done in the best humanitarian interests.

I am delighted to see that once again Her Majesty's advisers state that: A healthy and thriving agriculture will remain among the principal objectives… of the Government.

I was talking recently about the credit squeeze and saying how glad I was that it had been lifted, because a much more ample opportunity would now be given for borrowing money. The credit squeeze did a great deal of good in strengthening sterling but it hit people with small businesses and small farms. I say what I know to be true. I do not think it is too late to reverse what was done and I am delighted that the Gracious Speech makes clear that finance is to be forthcoming for small farmers.

I would refer now to a point which produced a great deal of opposition, namely, the proposal to introduce a small Bill to give greater freedom in the use of motor cars at Parliamentary elections. One Opposition hon. Member yesterday seemed to forget that we were severely critical when we were in Opposition of the limitation imposed upon the use of motor cars in this way. No doubt right hon. Gentlemen on the Opposition Front Bench will remember what happened when we were in Opposition during the six years when they were in office. I need hardly remind them of the all-night sittings which took place when the Representation of the People Bill was before us in either 1947 or 1948, when the Com- mittee stage of the Bill was discussed on the Floor of the House. We strenuously resisted the Bill and did all in our power to resist that Measure by way of argument and spinning out the debate. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Hon. Gentlemen know perfectly well that Parliamentary obstruction is not outside the canons of good behaviour in the House of Commons. In bringing in amending legislation, I hope we shall find that the right hon. Member for South Shields will give us the credit of being consistent.

I am sorry that I have gone on rather longer than I meant to, but I am glad to have the opportunity of pointing out these things. I realise that some right hon. Gentlemen opposite, including the Leader of the Liberal Party, are not too happy about their electoral prospects at the next General Election. Indeed, it may be that the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond) and the right hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. C. Davies) may be the only two out of the six present Liberal Members to be returned next time. [Interruption.] To use the words of the famous grandfather-in-law of the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland, I suggest that we must wait and see.

As the penumbra of the coming General Election moves over our proceedings here, hon. Gentlemen opposite realise that their election prospects are not as bright as they appeared to be this time last year or when they staged, in November, 1956, the stormy scenes at the time of the Suez expedition. They ought to recognise that the present Prime Minister played fair and sportingly with them in that he did not call a snap election, as he could have done with considerable electoral success. Hon. Gentlemen opposite ought to be grateful now, but Micawber-like, they are waiting for something to turn up. I trust that unemployment, either as a shuttlecock across the Floor of this House or in the wider debate that will take place in the next twelve months, will not be used as a party matter but will be considered only in the interests of those whose lives and livelihoods are so vitally concerned in it.