Industrial Relations

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:31 pm on 18 February 1992.

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Photo of Mr Dennis Turner Mr Dennis Turner , Wolverhampton South East 5:31, 18 February 1992

The hon. Gentleman is talking about the west midlands. He must know that 37 per cent. of manufacturing capacity has been lost there, and that 300,000 skilled engineering jobs have been wiped away. He is talking about what he considers the bad old days of the 1970s. In my area, there was an unemployment rate of under 2 per cent. in the 1970s and today it is 20 per cent. How can the hon. Gentleman argue about that? To many of my constituents, the good old days were in the 1960s and 1970s, when they had jobs and we were producing at home and exporting abroad.