Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 July 1978.
I am sorry, but I cannot give way. Time is short. I was told to be brief, and I have promised to be. I am trying to inject a sensible note into the debate, having listened to one or two inflammatory speeches from the Opposition Benches.
Looking at the matter on its merits, without electoral bias of any kind, the Government should now take such steps as can be taken to encourage investment in manufacturing industries in the north of England. The only encouragement they can give industrialists is to make it worthwhile for them to go north and to stay there. The only way to do that is to provide financial incentives, and not camouflage unemployment.
In my constituency the unemployment rate is now 15½ per cent. to 16 per cent. We have just had the tragedy, as have many constituencies, of the vast majority of school leavers having nothing to look forward to except the dole. Of about 900 school leavers in my constituency this summer, about 100 will be found employment or training of some kind in the immediate future. That means that about 800 children are leaving school, or have left within the past few weeks, with no prospects of employment or training.
That is disgraceful. The Government have nothing to be proud of. [HoN. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] It ill becomes Conservative Members to sneer in that supercilious, forensic manner, because it would be a thousand times worse if they ever had the management of our affairs in their power.
However, the Government should not be complacent. I speak for the people in the north-east, where the effect of unemployment today is more terrible than it has been since the 1930s. The Government have nothing to be proud about, but the Opposition have not one sensible idea. They have never put forward one, sensible, constructive measure to deal with these problems.
At the end of the day the Government should recognise that of the 39 schemes or so that have been introduced since 1974, which the Holland report recited, some have been sensible and constructive and of credit to the Government's efforts but many have failed and certain specific measures have been counter-productive. An example of that was the abolition in December 1976 of the regional employment premium to save £150 million in public expenditure. It has had a disastrous effect on the north-east, where it contributed directly to a cutback in industrial training and to an increase in unemployment.
The Government should now put the fight against unemployment right at the top of their list of priorities. A Labour Government should say that their prime target for action is unemployment. That is why, despite the shortcomings of the Government, I infinitely prefer a Labour Government's policies to those of the Conservative Party. But there is no getting away from the fact—and the Government must recognise this if they are honest about it—that their efforts to alleviate unemployment have so far been an abysmal failure.