Schedule 1. — (Spirits (Rates of Customs and Excise Duties.))

Part of FINANCE (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 June 1967.

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Photo of Mr Gordon Campbell Mr Gordon Campbell , Moray and Nairnshire 12:00, 1 June 1967

I shall deal with that point later, leaving it until I reach my second argument.

I now turn to the more recent event of the imposition of the regulator last July. The Chancellor replied to Questions of mine on this point as recently as 4th May. I inquired what had been the reduction in volume of home sales of Scotch whisky since the regulator was used, that is, from August to February, the latest month for which figures were available, compared with the equivalent period of the previous year. The Chancellor's answer, less than a month ago, was that there had been a reduction of 8 per cent. in the number of gallons, and that only £1 million extra in revenue had resulted.

In this case the Chancellor cannot sustain the argument that there was Budget forestalling, because he and the Government were saying only a short time before the 20th July measures that there was nothing wrong with our economy and everything was all right. The crisis blew up very quickly; to suggest that the whisky trade could have foreseen those measures in the weeks before would be to ascribe to it powers of second sight. It would have needed a phenomenal prescience to predict the sudden measures by the Government last July, if it is suggested that Budget forestalling for the emergency Budget last July could account for so much of that reduction.