Orders of the Day — Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 November 1968.

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Photo of Sir Gerald Nabarro Sir Gerald Nabarro , Worcestershire South 12:00, 25 November 1968

It is heavily taxed.

I headed my article, "Bitter Harvest of Squandermania". What pleased me most, however, was the fact that the editor of the "News of the World" quoted the Prime Minister's words on television on 19th November, 1967, the very words which the Prime Minister denied this afternoon. He had better sue the "News of the World" for libel. I bet that he does not. [Interruption.] Not the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Maxwell); he has not bought it yet.

The "News of the World" quoted yesterday the Prime Minister's words accurately: It does not mean the pound in your pocket has been devalued '—Mr. Harold Wilson, on TV, Nov. 19, 1967. Those were the words which the Prime Minister denied today. Those were the words which he used, and I shall not allow him to forget them. I shall not deliver a political speech between now and the next General Election polling day without quoting them, because nothing is more disgraceful, nothing smacks more of political turpitude, than those miserable words uttered by the Prime Minister. [An Hon. Member: "The hon. Gentleman has rehearsed this."] I have not rehearsed anything. I am speaking spontaneously and utterly sincerely from the heart.

It is not only the British electorate which has been deceived by the Prime Minister. Our partners in E.F.T.A. have evidently been deceived, as well. I did not wish unduly to interrupt the Chancellor of the Exchequer today: it would not have been fair to do so. He was a sitting duck. He did not know the answer. He did not know whether the President of the Board of Trade had agreed in advance with our partners at the E.F.T.A. conference in Vienna last week that the import deposits scheme was valid, acceptable, and honourable within the terms of the E.F.T.A. Convention. The Chancellor of the Exchequer merely said that he "informed" our E.F.T.A. colleagues.

I distinctly heard it reported on the B.B.C. this morning—and I always remember what is said when I am shaving; it is the most receptive period of the day's work—that an E.F.T.A. spokesman had said that this was the second time that Britain had "broken faith" with her E.F.T.A. partners. The first time was the imposition of the import surcharge, or levy within a few days of the Labour Party being returned to power in 1964.

Therefore, I claim that this latest crisis, from which we are all suffering, was foreseeable by the Government had they acted with reasonable intelligence and prescience. The fact is that they have been surprised, as on the occasion of every earlier crisis, due to their own incompetence and lack of foresight. It is not the last crisis we shall see with a Labour Government in office. Nobody, anywhere in the world, trusts them any more, in exactly the same way as no elector anywhere in Britain trusts the Prime Minister.