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 George Rodgers Mr George Rodgers , Chorley 12:00, 24 July 1978

It is apparent that the Conservative Opposition have chosen the theme of unemployment for today's debate for electoral considerations. I have no objection to that. I recognise that it is an issue of major concern throughout the country. However, I think that the selection of this subject is a further demonstartion of the remoteness of the Tory leadership's thinking. Certainly ordinary people in the community are in dread that a Tory Government should take office at a period of high unemployment. Indeed, the prospect frightens them half to death.

The Conservative Party, throughout its history, has lacked compassion and sympathy for those who are the victims of harsh circumstances. Its appeal has always been to the thrusting, the ambitious and the prosperous, with much less regard for those who are deprived and disadvantaged.

Yet it must surely be recognised that, however energetic and enterprising the individual, there is usually a recognition that personal industry can prove unrewarding—that ill-health and old age can frustrate ambition. It is against that background that the majority of people prefer to face the future with a Government who at least flavour their policies with the ingredient of humanity.

It is absolute nonsense to pretend that the high level of unemployment is a consequence of a Labour Government practising Solialist principles. Any serious examination of the charge would lead to a quick acquittal. My right hon. and hon. Friends in the Department of Employment have buffered the situation. But the fact remains that we are operating from not a Socialist base but a capitalist economic base.

Like every other capitalist State in the western world, we are suffering from heavy unemployment. If the Conservative Party wishes to lay the blame for the number of people without jobs on the existence of a Labour Government, it should endeavour to explain why the level of unemployment is so desperately high in the United States and in all industrial nations in Europe, the majority of which have Right-wing Governments.

There must be drastic change in the basic economic structure of our society if we are to resolve the unemployment problem. That solution will not be found in the creation of an enormous number of new jobs in manufacturing industry, although that appears to be the formula that unites both sides of the political divide in the House. Not long ago it was advocated—and this was implemented—that we should decant workers in large numbers from the public sector so that they could take part in the surge forward that was to take place in manufacturing industry.

That idea ignored that manufacturing industry was at that time working well below its capacity, that there were hundreds of thousands of workers with experience in industry who were unemployed, and that there was no great demand for nurses, hospital porters, social services workers or home helps in manufacturing industry.

There is overwhelming evidence that we shall not cure the unemployment problem by investment in industry. Of course, investment in industry is important and it has been neglected for too long. The failure of private enterprise to invest in home industry is unbelievable and unforgiveable. Only now, with a Labour Government in office offering untold millions of public money to reluctant entrepreneurs, is there any evidence of industrial investment. It is incredibly ironic that a Labour Government should be engaged in the task of giving the kiss of life to the corpse of capitalism.

I appreciate the necessity for investment in industry on a grand scale but I resent the avenue by which funds are made available. The process, however desirable, will not remedy the unemployment problem. That is an entirely separate issue from industrial investment. The purpose of industrial investment is to generate wealth, not employment. At one time the two went side by side. But that is no longer so. It is folly to pretend that by curing one outstanding national problem we shall automatically and conveniently solve another.

Some people still embrace the pathetic fallacy that investment in industry means jobs in industry. In the 13 years between 1963 and 1976, production in engineering and allied industries increased by 27 per cent. During the same period the labour force in those industries declined by 316,000. The textile industry improved production in the same period by 23 per cent. but the work force declined by 242,000.

During the same period, production in the gas, electricity and water industries increased by 73·4 per cent. and the number of workers declined by 65,000. Most spectacular of all, in the same period production in coal, petroleum products, chemical and allied industries rose by 96·2 per cent. and the work force diminished by 19,000.

There is now 60 per cent. more plant and machinery in manufacturing industry than there was in 1963. Manufacturing industry produces 30 per cent. more than it did in 1963. In 1976 we exported 41 per cent. more manufactured goods than we did in 1970. Between 1970 and September 1976 nearly £13 billion was invested in industry at 1970 prices. But every industry now employs fewer people. Now there are over 1 million fewer people working in manufacturing industry than there were in 1963.

High employment is not the result only of the recession. The problems that beset the United Kingdom also affect all the other western industrialised nations. Industry does not require more people. It needs more investment, greater output, a higher level of exports. It does not need more people.

Technology is advancing. Industries are becoming more capital-intensive. Another factor is superimposed upon the problem of technological advance. It is often overlooked but it is important if we are to face the problem openly and honestly. It is that the size of our labour force is increasing year by year. Each year 150,000 additional people seek employment. It is estimated that between 1977 and 1991 the labour force in Great Britain will comprise an additional 2·2 million people. That is a frightening estimate.

When one considers the enormity of the problem, the petty and carping criticisms that have been made during the debate recede into insignificance. In spite of the enormity of the problem I believe that there is good reason for optimism. We must recognise that there are possibilities for a better life for all our people if we have the courage and capacity to grasp the opportunities.

Many options and many opportunities will become available. I think that we can create the abundant life that Socialism is all about, and if we can do that with less sweat, tears and drudgery, what is so terrible about that? We should see expanding public service and expanding public facilities as a sign of a civilised society. It is lunatic to get rid of people from the public sector on the pretext that industry needs them, when it plainly does not. We could introduce earlier retirement, a programme that would not be nearly as expensive as is sometimes claimed because one-third of the money paid in redundancy payments already goes to those between the ages of 60 and 64, as does 40 per cent. of unemployment benefit and 23 per cent. of sickness benefit.

We could set about introducing a shorter working week. There would he the usual objections from employers, but, oddly enough, British industry seems to respond reasonably well to a shock or stimulus of this nature. We are always being told by Conservative Members how we thrived and prospered during the period of the three-day working week, so it should be a cakewalk to reduce the working week to 35 hours.

It might be better if the reduced working week were introduced in harmony with our industrial competitors, but if need be we can go it alone because I can recall, as others can, that when the 40-hour week was introduced there was great resentment and we were told that the nation was unlikely to survive, but we did. I recall even further back in the 1930s when the Socialist Government in France introduced a 40-hour week. They did it in isolation and were told that the country would not be able to continue as a prime industrial nation against that background, but obviously that was not so.

People who are employed in advertising, insurance and a whole host of similar enterprises seem to manage well enough on a week of 30 hours or so. Why should not those who work in factories, foundries and engineering on the production line have an equal entitlement to leisure? The arrangement would create hundreds of thousands of additional job opportunities. And why not sabbatical years for working people, and why not extended opportunities for education and travel? Perhaps we should abandon our somewhat puritanical attitude towards work itself, an attitude which I assure the House is not entirely shared by many who are in possession of abundant private wealth though I concede that they are frequently found of urging others to toil and spin with even greater ferocity than they do currently.

It would be churlish if I did not take this opportunity of paying tribute to the Department of Employment which has shown great vision in introducing schemes to provide employment and occupation, particularly for young people. It has done that by way of the temporary employment subsidy, the job release scheme, the job creation scheme, the youth opportunities programme, the youth employment subsidy and the small firms subsidy. All those schemes show imagination, and all have been successful.

The Department of Industry, too, has contributed towards the creation or preservation of employment, though I believe that we should utilise the National Enterprise Board to a greater extent than we do and provide it with greater funds.

It is estimated that more than 1 million workers have benefited from the special measures to provide employment, and the main Opposition party, with its incessant emphasis on profit as the only genuine incentive to providing work, would, in my view, place a great number of people, perhaps most of those who have acquired these freshly minted jobs, at risk by applying their policy of cutbacks in public spending. Let us make no mistake about it. These jobs have been established by public spending on a quite lavish scale.

I believe that there is much for which we can be thankful. We have natural gas in both the Irish and North Seas. We have North Sea oil, and we have vast reserves of coal. We have the beginnings of a large-scale training programme. We still have probably the best skilled workers in the world, especially our engineers, who will always be in demand, particularly as we move into this technological revolution.

We have in this country the finest places of learning in the world. We have a rising generation that will have the capacity to meet and solve the problems that our generation has helped to create. I am confident that the future will bring prosperity, not just to a small elite selfish section of the population but to the wider community who have hopes and entitlements which can be realised only in a democratic Socialist society.