National Insurance Surcharge

Part of Ways and Means – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 July 1978.

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Photo of Mr Nicholas Budgen Mr Nicholas Budgen , Wolverhampton South West 12:00, 5 July 1978

Then it will come on another night, and it will be just as good when it comes. We look forward to it.

The fact is that monetarism rules and, contrary to what the hon. Member for Bristol, North-West says, it is no longer a minority view. It is the view now of the Government, of the Opposition and of the financial institutions. It must be understood that monetarism is not undemocratic in the sense that it is impossible to have Socialism if a policy of monetarism is being pursued. It simply means that if we are to have a Socialist Government with high spending—and the people are entitled to elect a Socialist Government with that platform—the Socialist Government of the day must raise a very much higher proportion of their expenditure by proper taxation. It means that there cannot he Socialism with the very high public sector borrowing requirements thought possible a couple of years ago.

It was extremely interesting to hear the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central speak about the need to subject the financial institutions to some form of political direction. Those who have their money controlled and invested by the financial institutions should understand that the hon. Member's speech was very significant.

There are wild men in every party. No doubt 10 years ago there would have been a wild man in the Labour Party who would have advocated State direction of the financial institutions. But the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central is no wild man. He is a man of mature years. He is a well-read, learned man of kindly disposition and of moderate views. He has been a self-proclaimed monetarist for many years. He is a very much on the moderate Right wing of the Labour Party. When he reveals in a rambling speech his inner preoccupations and suggests that it may be necessary to control the financial institutions by legislation and by State interference, it means that that mood is becoming prevalent and very important within the Labour Party. It means not that it is likely to be in the next manifesto but that it is one of those ideas which could easily and quickly be adopted by the Labour Party.

It means that the future of every working person in the land is at risk. All of us have our future security potentially at risk at the hands of inflation. All of us know that whichever Government we happen to elect may corrupt the coinage and make our future almost completely insecure. But most of us have some sort of hope that these fears of inflation may be balanced by the hope of having some sort of independently-funded pension. These pensions will be subject to political control if even the moderate wing of the Labour Party has its way, and every working person in the land should know that this is a real threat.

It is true, of course, that there are scaremongers on the Opposition Benches. There are some who too quickly and too irresponsibly shout "Communist" at Government supporters. I hope that I am no scaremonger, and certainly the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central is no Commie or irresponsible young politician on the make on the Left wing of the Labour Party. He represents the solid decent right of the Labour Party and when he articulates suggestions like the one he has made tonight, the working people of this country should be very careful.