Three-Day Working Week

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 January 1974.

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Photo of Mr Willie Hamilton Mr Willie Hamilton , Fife West 12:00, 10 January 1974

I shall not give way to the hon. Lady, who has only just entered the Chamber.

Who is more patriotic, Mr. Harry Hyams, who can make millions out of an empty Centre Point block, or Joe Gormley, who is leading 300,000 coal miners?

Whatever the history of this matter, the fact is that we need as much coal as quickly as we can get it. I am glad that at last we have a Minister for Energy. On the other hand, I greatly doubt whether we have the right man. Much has been said about the noble Lord who sits in the other place and not in this Chamber. He is the Chairman of the Tory Party. What will be his top priority—winning the next election for the Tory Party or winning the coal and the other energy supplies that the country needs? If the two conflict, which will come first?

The noble Lord gives moral lectures, as did the right hon. Member for Barnet (Mr. Maudling) in the Sunday Express last week—and he had better keep a discreet silence and not give moral lectures to anybody. The same applies to Lord Carrington. He has been one of the most squalid property speculators under the present Government's legislation for the past two or three years. He now talks about my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition not giving a moral lead, but Lord Carrington is the last to talk like that.

Let them not talk to us about patriotism. Let them not talk about the national interest, and the rest of it. We know what the national interest is. We do not need any lessons in patriotism. But we know when we are on a winner, and we are on one on this occasion.

The people of this country will understand how they have been led to this—the "in" word is "impasse" ; it was first used by the right hon. Gentleman and it means that we are in a rut and do not know how to get out of it. The Prime Minister is determined to keep us in it until he gets his own way, but he will not get his own way, and the sooner he goes, the better.