Yorkshire and Humberside Region

Part of Orders of the Day — Supply – in the House of Commons at 6:14 pm on 29 June 1981.

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Photo of Mr Richard Wainwright Mr Richard Wainwright , Colne Valley 6:14, 29 June 1981

Inflation at the rate it is running can do wonders to figures for retail sales, but there is a serious lack of home demand. I am surprised that the Minister should be so brazen as to deny that. That would not matter so much if there were fair opportunities to export. But how can small and medium-sized firms, characteristic of the Yorkshire economy, be expected to conduct a successful export trade when the currency on which they depend is on a roller-coaster for which the Government refuse to take responsibility?

Many firms in my constituency are adding necessarily incurred heavy interest charges every few months to their already large overdrafts. They are told that the Government have all kinds of tax incentives for reducing corporation tax. But what consolation is that for a business that is not making a pre-tax profit anyway? I do not ask the Minister to accept my word for all this. I give him a few sentences from the first leading article in, of all papers, today's Yorkshire Post: There are probably millions of workers who are still employed but who are worried sick about their jobs. And there are millions more who are not particularly worried about redundancy, but who are finding it impossible to develop their careers because of the general collapse of recruitment. The jobless, the frightened and the stuck add up to more than enough to turf any Government out of office. It is a long time since I, as a life-long reader of the Yorkshire Post—that shows that I have a very stiff constitution—have found it as firm as that in its criticism of a Tory Government.