Mr Iain Macleod: Because this is so important, would the right hon. Gentleman use my actual words? [Interruption.] It is not an unreasonable request, with respect. What I said was that the Chancellor should use, and should be seen to use, his influence on the side of non-inflationary settlements. Does the right hon. Gentleman disagree with that?
Mr Iain Macleod: Does the Chancellor draw a distinction in this matter between medium- and short-term debt on the basis that medium-term debt has been rolled over, quite probably, by the present Government, but that short-term debt is given under circumstances in which there is an obligation on this country to repay as soon as possible?
Mr Iain Macleod: Can the hon. Gentleman break those figures down, showing how many of those are genuine weekly savings and how many are on a more long-term basis?
Mr Iain Macleod: The Chancellor will be aware that few people think that the half units—the half-crown, the sixpence or the halfpenny—have a long-term place in the £-penny system, although we regard that as a criticism of the unit on which the Government are basing their change-over. I make two points on what I regard basically as a cost-of-living decision. We have always said, and I think that what...
Mr Iain Macleod: No.
Mr Iain Macleod: I have made it before.
Mr Iain Macleod: That was the year before.
Mr Iain Macleod: I did not say that. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will quote me.
Mr Iain Macleod: On a point of order. I made it clear at a very early stage that the Opposition do not wish to vote against the Resolutions. Therefore, I wonder whether it would be convenient for the House if you, Mr. Speaker, were to put themen bloc?
Mr Iain Macleod: Which one?
Mr Iain Macleod: The Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday received some congratulations which he well deserved for the manner of his speech, and I gladly add my tribute to them. It was particularly easy to listen to and a good deal more agreeable than his previous Budgets, in that the taxpayer, for once, did considerably better out of it. In one respect, which I will come to, the right hon. Gentleman's...
Mr Iain Macleod: There was some irritation yesterday that my right hon. Friend said that this was the first Budget since 1949 in which a Socialist Chancellor of the Exchequer had reduced taxation. The new voters aged between 18 and 21 were not born the last time a Socialist Chancellor of the Exchequer came to the Dispatch Box to reduce taxation. It is important, first, to set down the whole record of the...
Mr Iain Macleod: I suppose that the victors are entitled to cheer. The White Paper on Productivity, Prices and Incomes shows clearly what has happened between what was promised or foreshadowed and the events of recent months. In Cmnd. 4237 we were told: most wage and salary settlements need to fall in the range of 2½ per cent. to 4½ per cent. increase in a year if this aim of greater price stability is to...
Mr Iain Macleod: I do not mind diverging for a moment on that subject. What I said was that this would be used, and it has been used, for the consultations on value-added which have taken place. But, in reply to the hon. Gentleman's point, it is quite wrong to suggest whether value-added adds or does not add to the cost of living until one knows the rates which are being put forward. After all, value-added...
Mr Iain Macleod: One does not shoot even a one-legged Santa Claus. I thought that it would simply be convenient for the House to know that I do not intend to invite it to vote on Monday evening. There are a large number of small proposals, and I therefore deal with them very briefly in welcome, though my welcome is just as sincere in spite of the brevity of what I say. I welcome very much what has been done...
Mr Iain Macleod: This is beyond me, and I would guess that it is beyond Her Majesty's Ministers as well. I turn to what I regard as the main omission from the Budget—any relief directly aimed at child poverty. The Chancellor has no doubt seen the Child Poverty Action Group, and so have I. I do not wish to go into the controversy that perhaps the group has with the Labour Party. Its case is that on the...
Mr Iain Macleod: I shall try to listen to the hon. Gentleman's speech if he will let me get on. I would have thought that the right hon. Gentleman would agree that there is a case in the matter of child poverty, even if he may differ from the solution I have put before the House. There is no question that the main election point in the Budget will be that the Chancellor has taken 2 million taxpayers out of...
Mr Iain Macleod: The Economist, on 4th April, commenting on the 1966 General Election, said: Labour talked of economic expansion, and its much-publicised national plan when everybody with any economic knowledge (including Ministers) knew that the Government was almost certainly going to resort to deflationary policies as soon as the election was over. Then, commenting on what is happening now and the...
Mr Iain Macleod: In part, the answer is yes, because, as I explained, I believe that the long-term answer—if there is one—is a form of negative income tax. But, failing that, I see no solution in the short term except an increase in family allowances, and, given the amount of money the Chancellor has, that implies claw-back. Although I do not like it, I believe it to be the right answer.
Mr Iain Macleod: The Leader of the House will be aware that the fate of the 6d. was to have been decided by Easter. Now that the Government have taken their decision in this matter, when will the House be informed?