Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 27 July 1961.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Sir John Barlow Sir John Barlow , Middleton and Prestwich 12:00, 27 July 1961

There has been plenty of time. There is a good deal of restrictive practice in labour. Industry cannot be run satisfactorily if there are such restrictive practices. Time is too short for me to go into the details, nor would it be a good thing to mention some of the details which are known. We all know that such practices exist.

It is our duty, as far as we can, to remove restrictive practices from both labour and management. We should then have a very much better climate in which to develop greater productivity. I am absolutely certain that until we get that climate of working for our mutual benefit we shall not solve our economic problems. At the present time, management and labour, or capital and labour, whichever we like to call it, are both wanting just too big a share of the slice of cake available, and, if we do not look out, there will be no cake available at all. It is up to us to solve these problems in order to hell) our export trade, and that will do much to help to improve the whole of our economic position at the present time.