Orders of the Day — Unemployment

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

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Eric Heffer Mr Eric Heffer , Liverpool, Walton 12:00, 24 July 1978

First, I take up the last point made by the hon. and learned Member for Darwen (Mr. Fletcher-Cooke). There is a lack of skilled workers in certain parts of the country, but the hon. and learned Gentleman should understand that in other parts there are still many skilled workers unemployed. The problem is to get the skilled workers who are unemployed in the places where they are needed. There is a practical question here for any Government. The Government must concern themselves with giving more assistance, making homes more readily available, and so on, for workers who, quite rightly, can be moved from one part of the country to another where they are required.

For example, although there is a serious crisis in the construction industry at present there are parts of the country which require skilled construction workers and cannot get them. Yet elsewhere, in such areas as mine and that of the hon. and learned Gentleman himself, and in Northern Ireland, and so on, there are skilled construction workers who are unemployed and have been unemployed for a considerable time. It is not easy for workers with families in such places to move away. That is the practical question that must be solved.

I ask the House to dwell for a moment on the central issue before us. Why do we have unemployment? It seems to me that we are skirting round that question. Unemployment does not descend from heaven. God does not create unemployment. Unemployment is the result of society's failure to organise itself in an intelligent way. If we organised our resources—our worker resources and our raw materials—and if we developed our industry and our investment in a planned intelligent fashion, we should not have unemployment.

I listened carefully to the opening speech of the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mr. Hayhoe). All that he offered us was what we have heard so often from his Front Bench—"Leave it to the market forces; market forces will solve everything". We have had experience of the market forces. They do not solve anything. They certainly do not solve the unemployment problem. A classic illustration of what happens under market forces is to be found in what is happening in Chile today. I am talking not about the fact that a democratic Government were overthrown but about the way in which the present Government, together with their local Friedmanites, imported the concept of total market forces. That concept and the Friedmanite philosophy have proved an utter failure. Unemployment has risen as never before in that country.

If we had left matters entirely to market forces in our own country, what would have happened? We should have been talking not about 1½ million unemployed but about 2 million, 3 million or 4 million unemployed. That is the reality of the matter. We cannot go hack to the idea of Government non-intervention in economic affairs. That is an old, outmoded concept. It went out with Roosevelt in the United States, and from that point onwards all Governments in democratic societies have been forced, because of circumstances and the realities of our economies, to intervene in economic affairs.

But all the Opposition have offered us today is "Leave it to us. Get back to the market forces. Hope for the best, and then we shall solve the unemployment problem." It is utterly unrealistic and plainly untrue. That is not the answer to our problem.

Another part of the Opposition's argument is that we should cut public expenditure further, because, if we do that, in the long run more jobs will be created and the solution to the problem will be helped in that way. It is interesting to note the attitude of Opposition Members when they think of their own constituencies and problems in their own areas. The right hon. and learned Member for Hex-ham (Mr. Rippon) wants a new airport. He wants further public expenditure. The same is true of all his right hon. and hon. Friends when we come down to it. They want public expenditure in their own areas. For example, we heard from the right hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Page). It is pleasant to find a sinner on the road to Damascus, accepting what some of us have argued for a long time.

Incidentally, it was some of us on the Government Benches who opposed the cuts in public expenditure. Right hon. and hon. Members on the Opposition Benches supported the cuts and told the Government that they had not gone far enough. We were the ones who pointed out that cuts in public expenditure would mean higher levels of unemployment in the construction industry, for example, and would mean that there would not be the proper services that we required in health, in education, in home help provision, and so on. We are the ones who pointed that out. I am delighted that Opposition Members have now come around to accepting our point of view. Perhaps I can ask the right hon. Member for Crosby to join the Tribune Group, together with the right hon. and learned Member for Hexham. From the way that they are going on, we should welcome them, because they have joined us in our basic argument.