Orders of the Day — Cotton Industry

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 28 June 1962.

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Photo of Mr Harold Boardman Mr Harold Boardman , Leigh 12:00, 28 June 1962

We are discussing today a situation which stems from the natural and logical development of one of our greatest industrial achievements.

Over the years, this country has produced and has exported some of the finest textile machinery that has ever been produced, and it has so happened that not only have we exported these fine textile machines but we have also exported highly skilled operatives to teach native labour how to use them. It is not unnatural, therefore, that as the wheels turn these countries are now quite capable of meeting us in competition in the markets of the world, and this is the situation in which we find ourselves.

We have, of course, a very great disadvantage because most of these countries which we are discussing today have a natural ability to produce their goods very much cheaper than the prices at which we can possibly produce them. As a consequence of what has happened and of the inaction of the Government, there has been created industrial despair and political disillusionment which is without precedent in this industry.

Over the years, I thought and believed that the best thing that could happen for the Lancashire cotton industry was to have a planned contraction of that industry because, like the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Sir A. V. Harvey), I have always believed that it would be very much better to have a smaller industry, giving greater security to the people who remained in it, than to have the sort of industry which we have had since the post-war boom, when we see daily the lifeblood of the industry running out. Undoubtedly, the industry has undergone a contraction, but it has not been the sort of planned contraction that many of us had envisaged.

What has happened has been completely crazy and chaotic. It so happens that, because there seems to be nobody who cares about the cotton industry, certainly not in the Government, the industry has been failing to attract the boys and girls from school to provide it with new blood. Not only that, but some of the people who have spent many years in the cotton industry and have been in it long enough to be greatly skilled have thought that they would get out while the going was good and while they could still get into another job, even such unskilled jobs as bus conductors, school caretakers and what-have-you; at any rate, a job with greater security. The Government must certainly accept some blame in this connection.

The rising imports from the low-cost production countries has struck an enormous blow at the confidence of the people in the industry, both employers and employees. It is this which has been responsible for the failure to attract young workers into the industry and to keep the experienced ones. Some firms have done everything possible for their workers, but we cannot expect a man in the mill, if he sees the writing on the wall, to stay until the place closes its doors, if he sees that there is to be no other job open to him for many years to come, and that is precisely what is happening. In Lancashire today men of 50 and 55 years of age, who have given years of loyalty to the textile industry, are eating their hearts out because they can find nothing worth doing.

Nobody wants to interfere with international trade. What we must do is to work for an intelligent expansion of that trade. The crux of the problem is that we have provided many of our competitors with the tools and the know-how of this great industry, and we must ask ourselves whether we are to allow them now to scuttle the industry which gave them birth.

On many occasions employers and trade unionists in the industry have said that they do not fear fair competition. They are not asking to be coddled, but they point out that they simply cannot compete with a rice-bowl economy. Once we start trying to compete with such an economy we come down, in the end, to seeing who can live on the smallest bowl of rice. That is not much good for either employers or operatives.

Much has been said about the deficiencies of the industry, but it is not a matter of pouring in money for new capital equipment, or of saying that the industry must make itself efficient. Since 1947 a firm in my constituency has put £1¾ million into new equipment. For fourteen years this firm has been working two shifts a day, and for the last few months three shifts a day in certain departments. It has a very effective deployment of labour because of the use of efficient work study teams. Yet its latest annual report concludes with these words: The outlook is not good, and gives cause for anxiety. This firm has done everything. It has re-equipped without Government aid. It has helped its staff. It is using its staff and machinery as effectively as is possible. What do the wags of Whitehall suggest that this firm should do now? There is no point in its taking further action if it has to compete with this flow of low-cost imports from Asia.

One thing has puzzled me for a very long time. This country has sent out to the Far East a high-powered and highly competent delegation to talk to the people in Hong Kong who are selling us this cloth and to discuss how much they should sell to us. I have said before, and I repeat, that not a yard of cloth comes into this country that somebody here has not bought before it arrives. Merchants are making money and are cutting the ground from underneath the feet of the Lancashire cotton manufacturers.