Orders of the Day — Unemployment

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 July 1978.

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Photo of Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke , Darwen 12:00, 24 July 1978

The hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Penhaligon) ended on a constructive note when he said that in regard to mass unemployment, particularly unskilled unemployment, it is time to stop pretending that anybody will be able to bring the number of unemployed down rapidly. I make no such pretence, and I do not believe that my party does.

It is realistic to aim at a much more modest target. As the debate has proceeded, the modesty has increased. The question is: what can make a useful contribution—to use the words of the hon. Member for Truro—to reducing the vast figure of unemployed? That is the most that any hon. Member can hope to do.

I do not altogether agree with the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. Hoyle), although I do not know as much about it as he does—about the real hopelessness of the task. I do not understand, as he does, the silicon chip or the microcircuit, but I think I am right in saying that although the prospect for the middle distance and the twenty-first century is quite alarming, what we must do now is to see for the next five years what can be done for the most important element in the figure of 1½ million—that is, the skilled labour element.

In no previous period of mass unemployment has there been this extraordin- ary paradox where, within the framework of mass unemployment, there has still been a tremendous demand for skilled labour. It is growing. We all encounter it in our constituencies. We read alarming reports about events in other people's constituencies. The ICI installation on Teesside was closed for lack of skilled labour. British Rail cannot find the men it requires to repair the permanent way, even though it would be within the limits of its budget. This great paradox arises within the enormous global figure of unemployed.

I recently went over the local branch of the North-Western Area Electricity Board's office, in my constituency. That board is crying out for tradesmen, but it cannot get them, or, if it gets them, they do not stay. This one small example is multiplied 10 if not 100 times throughout the country. It is a problem about which we heard little from the Government today. It is a feature on which I hope the Secretary of State will dwell, because there have now been about three years of crash training and retraining courses, and a great deal of money has been spent, or so we are told. It all seems to have had but a minimal effect on the problem, first, of making the unskilled semi-skilled, next, making the semi-skilled skilled, and, finally, making those whose skills are no longer required acquire other skills.

What has been done for the expenditure of effort and money in that direction? If that programme were to succeed, we could achieve a vital contribution towards solving the problem, but we hear virtually nothing about it. I believe that there is a great hidden failure on the Government's Dart in this matter, a great hidden failure to produce the training and retraining which industry requires and is crying out for but which cannot be found in the great ocean of unemployment—or so it seems.

Will the Secretary of State frankly and openly tell the House what the obstacles are? Are restrictions being applied by the trade unions? I do not believe that they are, but are restrictions somehow being placed on the training of people, both young and even middle-aged, to acquire skills or new skills? Why is this not going forward?

Perhaps that is not the obstacle; perhaps the real obstacle is the lack of inducement to those concerned. Perhaps no obstacle is being applied by people who want to preserve restrictive practices or preserve old skills where new skills are required, and the answer is simply that there is not enough inducement to acquire skills. People realise that the difference between what they can earn skilled and what they can earn unskilled or semi-skilled is so little that it is not worth the effort.

What does the Secretary of State say about that? We hear about it a good deal. Employers say "He came for a fortnight or three weeks and then he told me it was not worth coming again. He had a heavy bus fare, the bus service was bad, and he worked things out. He was quite anxious to work, but he found in the end that it was just not worth his while." We hear that story again and again. If it is true, it is a recipe for national suicide. It is suicide in the competitive world in which we live to put any obstacles in the way of people's desire to better themselves. To create economic circumstances that make it not worth people's while either to acquire skills or to utilise them once acquired is national suicide in the quite short run.

Will the Secretary of State please give me an answer to that question, so far as he can, tonight? The fruits of the present programme are enormously disappointing. The demand for such retrained labour and skilled labour is growing, yet the number of unemployed is growing. It is a scandalous paradox, and it calls for an immediate explanation.