Orders of the Day — Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 April 1975.

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Photo of Mr Norman Buchan Mr Norman Buchan , Renfrewshire West 12:00, 16 April 1975

The hon. Gentleman claimed that the council had asserted this balance of payments surplus, but the council denied ever having done so. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman should have a word with the council. After all, he was formerly employed by it. He may even have done the survey.

There is something fundamentally antihuman in the hon. Gentleman's approach. He is saying that he is concerned with the well-being of working people only if they happen to be Scottish. It does not matter whether there are poorer people, or as poor people, in the north and north-east of England, Wales and Merseyside. That is the purpose of the comparison he made with South-East England. He compares the wealthiest part of England with the whole of Scotland. What he says is just not true.

The hon. Gentleman referred to wages in South-West Scotland. Wages in South-West Scotland; indeed, wages in all Scotland, in five out of the six main categories—all male, male skilled, male unskilled, all female, female skilled, female unskilled—are higher than they are in the rest of England, excluding London and the South-East. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman is sneering at 40 million people. That comparison shows that the hon. Gentleman's attitude is anti-human. I am sometimes ashamed of my own nation when I hear what is said by people who claim to speak for it.

The reason why wages are higher in South-East England is that London is the money capital. It has a large middle class and professional population—Members of Parliament, civil servants, international finance houses, the kind of concerns with which the hon. Gentleman is connected. The hon. Gentleman who talks about the working people of Scotland is a Tory. I understand that he does not pay his dues, but he is still a Tory. He has no solutions for the people of Scotland.

If one considers Edinburgh, one gets the same comparison. The reason why Scotland is better off than the rest of England is Edinburgh. Just as London, in the South-East, pushes up English wage levels, so Edinburgh, with its professional and middle-class population, pushes up the Scottish figures. His comparison of wage levels is quite untrue. So is his claim of a balance of payments surplus. I will deal with other flaws and fallacies in a moment.