Mr David Ginsburg: Will the right hon. Gentleman, before he leaves the sensitive list, make a comment about blankets? He has mentioned everything else. What about Japanese blankets?
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state the number of jobs in prospect for the Dewsbury employment exchange area.
Mr David Ginsburg: This is a profoundly unsatisfactory state of affairs. Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that unemployment in the Dewsbury area has doubled in two years? Also, is there not a lot of concealed unemployment especially among unmarried women? Since it has been generally recognised that the heavy woollen industry has special problems—I think that the right hon. Gentleman's predecessor but one...
Mr David Ginsburg: Will the right hon. Gentleman reply to the last part of my supplementary question? Will he consider studying the problems of the area, particularly the problem of concealed unemployment, during the next few weeks?
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Prime Minister if he will take the initiative to convene a Western summit conference covering economic and political affairs between himself, President Kennedy and President de Gaulle.
Mr David Ginsburg: Would the Prime Minister confirm a recent statement of the British Ambassador in the United States that it is the intention of the President and the Prime Minister to meet to discuss new developments in Europe? If so, would it not be more realistic to proceed with the meeting with the French President present?
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Prime Minister to what extent the services of the Economic Adviser to Her Majesty's Government are available to himself and to Ministers generally.
Mr David Ginsburg: Is the Prime Minister aware that the Economic Adviser was used as an expert witness at the National Incomes Commission? If the Government are going to express the gloomy view that the N.E.D.C. growth target cannot be readied by 1966, would it not be better if the Prime Minister himself or the Chancellor went to the Commission and said so?
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the evidence of the Economic Adviser to Her Majesty's Government, Professor Cairncross, to the National Incomes Commission to the effect that there was no reason to expect the rate of growth in output per head to reach 3 per cent. per annum in 1966, represented Government policy.
Mr David Ginsburg: Is it not quite clear from this transcript that the Treasury estimates are far more pessimistic than those of the National Economic Development Council? If gloomy views of that sort are to be expressed before the National Incomes Commission, would it not be much better if the Chancellor of the Exchequer went to the National Incomes Commission and said so himself, on his own responsibility?
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Minister of Labour if he will undertake a study through the local employment exchanges of the distances travelled to and from work in the West Riding of Yorkshire; and if he will make a statement.
Mr David Ginsburg: Would the Minister expedite this analysis from the Census? Is he aware that there is grave anxiety about the lack of new job opportunities in many parts of the West Riding? Is he aware that this fact compels people in many areas of the West Riding to have to travel excessive distances to obtain work of any kind?
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Minister of Labour if, in the light of the estimate given by the wool textile industry of employment in the industry in 1966, published on page 124 of the National Economic Development Council's Report, he will state his own estimate of employment in the industry in that year; and if he will make a statement.
Mr David Ginsburg: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the N.E.D.C. is quite categoric that employment in wool textiles will fall by 11,000 between 1961 and 1966? If that is an authoritative estimate, would the right hon. Gentleman give serious consideration to the need for new industries and new sources of employment in these parts of west Yorkshire which are overwhelmingly dependent on the wool textile...
Mr David Ginsburg: The Conservative Party won the 1951 General Election on a "dash for freedom" slogan. Listening to the earlier part of the speech of my old sparring partner, the hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Sir A. Spearman), I felt that he rather feared a dash for expansion at the present time. The respective policies of the present and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer have been a constant...
Mr David Ginsburg: rose—
Mr David Ginsburg: The hon. Gentleman said that it is a good deal better than the last Budget. I remember what he said on the last occasion, because I followed him then. He said what a good Budget the last one was.
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Prime Minister what steps Her Majesty's Government are taking to expedite the Report of the Powell Committee on the nuclear energy programme.
Mr David Ginsburg: Has there not already been excessive delay with the Powell Report, and has there not been fantastic indecision on the part of the Government about the nuclear energy programme and the whole co-ordination of fuel and power policy? Would not the Prime Minister agree that the nuclear power programme as at present planned will cost the country £350 million more than a conventional fuel and power...
Mr David Ginsburg: asked the Prime Minister, if, having regard to the Report of the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries dealing with the Electricity Supply Industry, and particularly paragraphs 400–5, he is satisfied with arrangements for co-ordinating Ministerial decisions about the nuclear energy and generating programmes; and if he will make a statement.