Former MP for Aldershot
I do not propose to follow my hon. Friend in the details of the very interesting and amusing speech to which we have just been listening, but I will try to bring the Committee back for a few minutes to the main centre of the problem with which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been attempting to deal. In nearly every quarter of the Committee there has been a full realisation of the intense...
I will allow my hon. Friend to interrupt me on a question of fact but not on a question of opinion. I listened to his speech with great enjoyment and I hope he will listen to mine, although I am afraid I cannot promise him the same amount of enjoyment. My hon. Friend made no attempt to deal with the national financial and economic problems but gave a brilliant lecture on the wickedness or...
I would say with all respect to my hon. Friend that it is very easy for those who are associated with literature to regard their profession as so important and sacrosanct that it ought to be treated differently from any other form of activity. That, I submit to the Committee, was the plea which my hon. Friend made.
Nobody is better qualified to talk on this subject than my hon. Friend and to represent the case for literature against any taxation on books. All I am saying is that he has not made out a case for the treatment of this form of national activity in a different way from any of the other important activities of this country.
My hon. Friend knows me much too well to think that I would ever imply a personal motive to him. That was not the attitude about which I was complaining. I was venturing to rebuke a famous exponent of literature for saying to the House of Commons "This is holy ground on which you must not tread." That is an attitude which the Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot admit, although I have no doubt...
I am sure that the hon. Member who has just spoken has deserved the thanks of the fruit-growing section of agriculture for what he has said. He represents one of the most important fruit-growing districts in England, and, as one coming from a much smaller fruit-growing district and being a fruit grower on a small scale, I know how true are his words. I am quite certain that nobody doubts that...
I quite agree with my hon. Friend. At the end of 25 years, agriculture is in a worse position to help the nation in its hour of need than it was in 1914. I am very glad that the right hon. Gentleman recognises that fact, because unless you can diagnose the disease you cannot accurately prescribe the remedy. The root cause of the evil and difficulty with which he has to grapple is the fact...
Lord Astor, I think, is still opposed to it. He remains the one just man. The brewers entirely changed round, and why? It was not because they had not to pay more for their hops—they had had to pay more—and not because they liked paying more than was necessary for what they bought, but because they found that the quality of the hops they were getting had steadily improved. Why? It was...
