Former MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme
With the general principle enunciated by the hon. Member for Leominster (Mr. Baldwin) that we should produce to our utmost capacity and, so far as possible, conserve our food supplies, every intelli- gent Member in this House would be in agreement; but for him to say as he did in effect, that he was not so much blaming the Minister of Agriculture as the Cabinet, because the Cabinet did not...
The nationalisation of the land does not enter into this at all.
The question of hypocrisy does not. I do not think it is hypocritical for the Labour Party to make speeches about their immediate policy in regard to the land. At the moment the Labour Party have stated they have no intention of nationalising the land, but they have added that if there is any land which is derelict or wasted, or of which proper use is not being made, then the Government will...
That is an entirely extraneous interpolation. There is nothing contradictory in the Labour Party's policy of nationalisation—
I appreciate your kindly and correct intervention, Mr. Speaker. I was tempted to reply because of the ignorance of hon. Gentlemen opposite. I will proceed to deal with the speech of the hon. Member for Leominster. Is he aware that between the two wars—I think my figures are correct-3 million acres of good land in this country went out of cultivation? Is he aware that for many years the...
Even they did not complain, as they have in the past; and the reason was that the Minister of Agriculture, with imagination, with acumen, with perspicacity, with intelligence—
No, I am not. I have the honour to be a Britisher and I regard that as a great honour, but I am not rubicund and I am not a farmer. The important middle part, is t hat which I claim the honour to be. I would say to the noble Lord, whose presence in the House always makes my heart leap, as, in the words of Wordsworth: when I behold a rainbow in the sky. The hon. Member for Leominster asked...
I am overjoyed. It is a matter for great encomium that an hon. Member taking part in an Adjournment Debate, has to leave the House because he cannot stand the full facts, although I am prepared at any time to give way to him or anyone else if they can confute the statements I have made. The fact that the hon. Member has left is a noteworthy incident which we can rightly remember at an...
