Former MP for Ashford
That is entirely wrong.
I hope that the House will reject this Bill, because I believe it to be the very worst Measure that has ever been introduced by this or any other Government. It makes legal in one place something that is illegal in another; what is a virtue in one place becomes a vice in another. I do not think that we have heard here to-night any arguments that would lead us to suppose that the Bill can have...
I did not use that argument. It was used by the hon. Member for Cardiganshire (Mr. Morris).
The picture drawn by the hon. Member for Gorbals (Mr. Buchanan) may apply to the particular districts which he knows, but it certainly does not apply, at any rate, to the poorer districts in London. I have been connected with Poor Law Guardians and public assistance committees for 20 years, and I think I can claim at any rate to speak with some authority on that question; and I do not...
They are not representing a movement. Surely they are representing the nation.
Surely the hon. Member must know that the trade union members will have to represent other people, apart from trade unions?
I am against any fixed rent being put into the Bill, but I was very perturbed when the Minister mentioned that no rural parish will get help unless the rates exceed 10s. I have discussed it with my friends, and there is not a single agricultural parish which will come in under such a regulation. In rural parishes where there is no sewage scheme or water supply or any amenities, the rate...
I am afraid that we are putting in too many of these restrictions. They are designed to penalise backward rural councils, which have no definite intention of proceeding with housing, and yet I fear it is the rural worker who really suffers. It is he who bears the penalty and not the rural authority, because he has to go on paying a high rent and living in a wretched little cottage. All the...
