Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 6 February 1961.

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Photo of Mr Cyril Bence Mr Cyril Bence , Dunbartonshire East 12:00, 6 February 1961

I was amazed by some of the statements made by the hon. Member for Belfast, East (Mr. McMaster), especially his proposal to remit taxation in difficult times to companies which have had a pretty good time in the past. That might be an excellent proposal for the companies and for Conservative hon. Members who might lose their seats at the next election, but it is a fantastic suggestion, which is quite impracticable and unacceptable.

I was also amazed by the way in which he picked up the idea of one plan. I do not think that I have ever listened to such nonsense in all my life. The point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Battersea, North (Mr. Jay) was one which I can illustrate from before the war, when the British motor industry, led, I am sorry to say, by an American company, the Ford Company, both at Trafford Park and then at Dagenham, but also by William Morris, now Lord Nuffield, and Sir Herbert Austin, began a movement for mass-producing motor cars. By 1934, although we were reaching our target for the production of cars, we could not get enough steel, because the steel manufacturers had no target and no faith in the ability of the motor industry to mass-produce cars. We have experienced the same problem since. The motor industry still has to import sheet steel because we had our target but the steel industry did not match it.

It is not only Socialists who are asking for some forward planning. Even large industrialists and the merchant bankers are asking for it.