Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Part of Orders of the Day — Ways and Means – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 April 1962.

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Photo of Hon. Nicholas Ridley Hon. Nicholas Ridley , Cirencester and Tewkesbury 12:00, 11 April 1962

I believe this to be the third time that that interjection has been made in various speeches by the hon. Member for Bristol, Central (Mr. Awbery). I will give him my answer, but I am wondering whether he has been listening to what I have been saying. It seems clear to me—this is my own opinion—that the Surtax concession should have been balanced by a much harder and tougher drive against business expenses. We might even have made a profit for the taxpayer had the operation been carried out properly.

Finally, I come to dividends. I do not wish to talk at length about dividends, but I should like to quote two figures in order to keep this matter in perspective. They were given by the Treasury in a Parliamentary Answer a few weeks ago. Since 1938, in real terms, wages have increased by 71 per cent. and dividends have increased by 2 per cent. I am not saying that dividends have been unfairly treated. But I think that the position is put into the right perspective by those figures and I hope that we shall hear less—