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 Douglas Crawford Mr Douglas Crawford , Perth and East Perthshire 12:00, 24 July 1978

The Back-Bench speeches have been much less polemical and much more moderate than the opening speeches from the Front Benches, but doubtless we shall revert to the needless polemicism when Cathcart takes on Craigton and Craigton takes on Cathcart.

I have very little time for the Tory electioneering which we heard from the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mr. Hayhoe). The Conservative calls for public expenditure cuts will not help unemployment. I would remind the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Heifer), who I am sorry is not now present, that my right hon. and hon. Friends also voted against any public expenditure cuts. The Conservatives would appear to be against public expenditure cuts in particular but for them in general. Their vote against giving succour to Chrysler and the vote against the Scottish Development Agency would have done no good in Scotland.

At the same time I have very little time for the Government's complacency. As the Secretary of State will know, there are over 190,000 unemployed in Scotland. Perhaps I can quote the Labour Party's October 1974 manifesto, which said: Labour will do whatever is necessary to bring full employment to Scotland. We shall not rest until everyone in Scotland has the opportunity of a decent, well-paid job. We also know what the right hon. Member for Kilmarnock (Mr. Ross) said when, as Shadow Secretary of State, unemployment under the previous Conservative Government reached 100,000. At the same time I would suggest that unemployment in Scotland is not wholly the fault of the Government per se. It is the fault of the system. I think that it was Lord Godolphin who, after the union of Parliament in the eighteenth century, said: We have catched Scotland and we shall not let her go. To a great extent the 190,000 unemployed in Scotland is a direct result of the fact that Scotland is bound hand and foot, fiscally and financially, to London and to a centralised system of economic management at the very time when her resources are far greater than those of England and when her industries collectively, and her workers individually, are more productive than are their counterparts in England. Time prevents me from going into the actual facts, but I hope that neither the hon. Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Taylor) nor the Secretary of State will dispute this, because I have the Government figures to show how productivity in Scotland is greater than it is in England.