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 Eddie Loyden Mr Eddie Loyden , Liverpool, Garston 12:00, 24 July 1978

I do not intend to take up any of the views put forward by the hon. Member for Perth and East Perthshire (Mr. Crawford) and, Mr. Deputy Speaker, in response to your request I intend to keep my comments extremely brief.

One aspect omitted from the speeches to which we have listened so far has been any suggested solution to our difficulties. From all sides of the House, a great deal of sympathy has been expressed about the high level of unemployment. All those right hon. and hon. Members who have spoken have voiced their abhorrence of it. However, the subject has been dealt with as it has been in the past. Right hon. and hon. Members have attempted to analyse in detail the figures of unemployment and the alleged reason for the unemployment, but they have not suggested a positive and long-term solution. I understand readily the hesitancy that there is about seeking the answer. In that sense, we have to be quite political when we are dealing with the subject of unemployment, despite what the hon. Member for Perth and East Perthshire said.

I do not believe that anyone who is included in the 1½ million unemployed will be very interested in the analysis that has been going on in this Chamber today. Those who are unemployed are not greatly interested in the figures, the distribution and the percentages of unemployment in the United Kingdom. They will be interested to hear what we have to say about possible solutions. In that sense, many Government supporters have raised the question in the way that it ought to be raised. They have raised it in a political fashion and pointed out that in the end the solution will be a political one.

Unemployment ought not to be seen merely as a figure that we constantly bandy round this Chamber. We should be thinking in terms of the human degradation and the problems that emerge in society as a result of unemployment. When we consider, for instance, our unemployed youth, we remember that the old argument always was that the world did not owe us a living. I oppose that argument. Young people who have left school and who in normal circumstances would be looking for opportunities to work in industry today find it almost impossible. Those same people have to pass shops unable to buy what they want and have to pass theatres unable to enjoy what they have to offer. They are deprived of the social pleasures of life that are necessary in any society in order that they may achieve some sort of fulfilment in their lives and begin to relate to society. How can we expect those young people who have left school and have in many cases been for two or three years without a job to look at society with any sort of acceptance and regard it as providing them with some sort of fulfilment in life?

Following from that, there is a rejection by many of our young people of the society in which we live. The results of that manifest themselves on any council estate or in any major city in terms of crime and vandalism, and all those features which are becoming part of the scene in the 1970s for young working people. That is the real tragedy of unemployment.

It is true that the situation is not the same as it was in the 1920s. Men are no longer hanging about on street corners, with their heads dropping further on to their chests day by day. There is not the poverty. A great deal of buffering against that poverty has come about as a result of progressive social legislation.

But there is something much more problematic. The street corners may no longer be occupied, but we have offered no alternative to those who find themselves out of work. It has been said from these Government Benches that being idle in that sense cannot be said to apply to every level of our society. There are people who never work but who still enjoy a full life. However, when people have been involved all their lives in work and are suddenly deprived of work, especially when they are middle-aged, they begin to feel useless to society and rejected by society. They have no way of fulfilling their lives, because we have failed to educate them to enjoy life without work.

When we are considering the problem of unemployment we have to think of what constitutes the answers. There is no doubt that the technological revolution has created new problems. The problems will continue and become more sophisticated. That means that there will be a continuance of high levels of unemployment. If that is so, what is the answer? What do we do in a society that is moving at the rate that has been set by modern industrial societies? How do we resolve the problem that is faced by those who previously were participating in industry to produce the goods that were required when they are no longer required to carry out that work, and when the goods are still being produced?

We are not facing a problem of production. That is a problem that has been overcome. That has been admitted throughout the House. The present situation offers tremendous opportunity to society. One-third of the world is still living at poverty level. There is still starvation and deprivation throughout the world. The opportunities that science and technology have given us should be used for the benefit of man and should not bring about the situation that we face in the advanced industrial countries of the western world.

It is clear that we must have a planned society. Socialists must make clear what they mean by that term. That is necessary because societies have been planned in the past. The corporate State was planned by Mussolini. We are not talking about that sort of society; we are talking about a Socialist planned society. By no stretch of the imagination can we achieve the society that my colleagues and I speak about without taking the economy under control.

We cannot plan what we do not own. We are unable to control the private sector, yet we see it falling apart. That is happening on Merseyside. There has been closure after closure of Merseyside factories. Even today we heard the latest addition to the long-running problem. The steel press has today reported a further Merseyside closure.

Let it not be thought for one moment that the people of Merseyside are looking to the private sector to cure the problems of unemployment. They know that private enterprise has brought the present problems in their area. There is no way in which private enterprise can take the next step forward without increasing unemployment and the various associated problems.

In offering answers to the problems my hon. Friends and I are talking about the next Labour Government. I accept that many attempts have been made to alleviate the problem of unemployment, but the resources that the Government have sent into the areas suffering the greatest difficulty have not been used correctly. I understand that £520 million has been used to train young people for jobs. However, that is of no consequence if there are no jobs for them to take up at the end of the road. The money has been used to occupy young people but it has not provided long-term jobs. We should ensure that there are industries to train young people and to provide them with jobs. At present that is not happening.

The resources that have been used to occupy our young people in the short term could have been used in direct intervention to create manufacturing industries in areas of high unemployment. That would have been a positive Socialist step to find a solution to our problem. Unless we grasp the nettle there will not be a solution to the problem in the next 10 years or 15 years. It is the Government's responsibility to seek new ideas along with the political philosophies that the Labour movement has created to put into practice and to build a better world. That applies not only to the material things of life; it means bringing about a fuller life all round. That is possible. That can now be achieved, but only if we take the correct political steps.