Mr Charles Hale: My hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Alfred Morris) assures us that hon. Members will have an opportunity later, but that might well depend upon whether another Privy Councillor pops in and pops out, because there must come a time when somebody moves the Closure. [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] This business of Privy Councillors popping in and popping out and being heard is...
Mr Charles Hale: I thank my hon. Friend for calling attention to my existence, because I have been worried about the fact that the consistent diet to which I have been subjected for the last two months might have rendered me wholly invisible.
Mr Charles Hale: Mr. Hale rose—
Mr Charles Hale: The hon. Gentleman has selected me for animadversion, having refused to give way when I wished to intervene on an observation relevant to what he had to say. If, after that, he expects that I shall be displaying any especial courtesy to him, let me tell him that I am not doing so. I was turning to my hon. Friend because I am slightly deaf and saying, "He must be talking rubbish, but I cannot...
Mr Charles Hale: Perhaps I may, in gently intervening in the debate, express my thanks to the Chair, first, for recognition—after all, I have not been a very active Member for a long time, and I am very grateful to know that I am still remembered—secondly, for the privilege I have had in watching Privy Councillors pass through the Chamber for the last five hours—men whom I used to remember with...
Mr Charles Hale: I notice the hon. Member for Cheadle (Dr. Winstanley) nodding his head. There is a history of rickets in the area. By God, one could see that the first time I went there fifty years ago. One could see the physical set-up indicative of rickets in youth among disabled people in Oldham. What are we to do about them? I want to know. I think that it is important that I should know. With great...
Mr Charles Hale: I should be delighted and surprised if I got the support of the hon. Member. Shopping is not easy on those days. The society takes on these extra staff on Fridays and Saturdays so as to make shopping easier. Naturally, the society tries to secure the services of older employees and give this opportunity to people who perhaps have had previous experience and who are now only too glad to...
Mr Charles Hale: I am not sure what that refers to.
Mr Charles Hale: The hon. Gentleman is nearer to the result than I expected.
Mr Charles Hale: The correct figure, as I have worked it out quickly during the hon. Gentleman's intervention, is a little over £80 and a little less than £85; but that is not the point. The Oldham Industrial Co-operative Society will pay the £85 a week. The society is generous-hearted and a very good employer. Indeed, in Oldham we have very good employers. We do not have many disputes. There must come a...
Mr Charles Hale: I am sorry. It is many years since anybody in the House of Commons really wanted to hear me. This touches me. I am infinitely grateful for that interruption, which I welcome. I will try to respond to the injunction. These ambits of employment are limited. They are not replaceable. My hon. Friend the Member for Wood Green mentioned somebody who employed three part-time workers a week. One...
Mr Charles Hale: asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the increase of group denigration, slander by innuendo, and guilt by association in the United Kingdom, he will introduce legislation to prohibit these practices.
Mr Charles Hale: Does my right hon. Friend recall that he and I were for many years members of a proscribed organisation, constantly assailed by group innuendo and ofttimes ambushed at short range? Would he not now declare—because I feel that he believes this—that the worst of all menaces to freedom of speech is semi-official, semi-secret inquisition?
Mr Charles Hale: It was said in 1915 that there was rejoicing on the Rive Gauche when the French forces were issued with dungarees because it brought the world war within the limited range of Vuillard's colour. I had thought that Clause 42 had finally brought this year's Finance Bill within my limited economic range, until I heard two or three of the speeches to which we have just listened. Of the speech of...
Mr Charles Hale: Yes, Sir Eric. I was anticipating the moment when we would have to face that problem. May I point out that the Amendment, if carried, would provide that the Oldham Co-operative Society would benefit by £10,000, because the society would be exempted from the rather punitive payment of a tax six months in advance. While I share your desire that we should inhibit ourselves as much as...
Mr Charles Hale: It is kind of you, Mr. Irving, to say that you are reluctant to interrupt me. I was just calling myself to order and saying that these were matters that we could raise later, so I will not raise them now. We have had the experience of the post-war credits. It was an ingenious idea at the time to say that we would levy money from people and pay it back later. It was a sort of Kathleen...
Mr Charles Hale: The right hon. and learned Member for St. Marylebone (Mr. Hogg), who opened the debate, was interrupted from this side of the House by an observation with which I entirely disagreed. It is right that we should consider the Regulations with great care and should compare the precedents. I do not think that the right hon. and learned Gentleman, whose filial devotion, I understand, is to a...
Mr Charles Hale: My hon. Friend shakes his head. The right hon. and learned Member for St. Marylebone, who was in a position to see, said that he saw an affirmative nod. My hon. Friend the Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Michael Foot), who was sitting next to me—he will not mind my quoting this, because I asked him what the reply was—said that he agreed. It is important that we should know this. It was a fair...
Mr Charles Hale: That is a generous observation from the right hon. and learned Gentleman. I am sure that if he had not had that impression, he might have said a good deal more on certain aspects of the argument. Certainly, many of us would have wished to do so. It is an important matter and it is important that it should be cleared up. In this position, there is a good deal to be said for the fact that it...
Mr Charles Hale: I shall try to limit by brief remarks to the question of byssinosis, in respect of which I have a constituency interest, although, since in some cases there is no split between the diseases, I shall occasionally have to use the collective figures for the two diseases. First, the hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. van Straubenzee) said that he would like to know something about the figures. I do...