Mr Iain Macleod: I beg to move, at the end of the Question to add: " But, while welcoming the recent improvement in overseas trade, humbly regret that this has only been achieved at the cost of record unemployment, a record rise in prices, a record level of interest and mortgage rates, the doubling of taxation, a vastly increased burden of not less than £3,000 million overseas debt, and the halving both of...
Mr Iain Macleod: I will not give way. I am making a particular point. I hope that when the right hon. Gentleman deals with this matter he will spare us mock anger, because that does not impress us. Would he concentrate on this? The figure that went out over the tapes and the messages and stories written by brilliant journalists on the first day were based overwhelmingly on the false rather than on the real...
Mr Iain Macleod: The qualification—I will read it to the House if hon. Members wish—does not refer to whether the re-recording was up or down, but merely said, as I said earlier in my speech: Exports in September, seasonally adjusted and before allowing for special influences affecting recording"— then there is an asterisk were £617 million f.o.b…. The little asterisk refers to page 6—[HoN....
Mr Iain Macleod: If hon. Members wish to argue that everybody should have picked up that particular reference—
Mr Iain Macleod: If hon. Gentlemen opposite are arguing that, then they are arguing that 90 per cent. of those who do their work in this sphere are incompetent [Interruption.]—and that is not true. In our Motion of censure we cite six points. Each is a matter of recording. Let us take, first, the question of unemployment. The October figure of unemployment is the worst since 1940. As my right hon. Friend...
Mr Iain Macleod: Because these records are the worst that any Government have achieved since 1940—[Interruption.]because our record—[HoN. MEMBERS : "Answer."]—I am answering it precisely—our record over the 13 years averaged 1·8 per cent., and I see no reason why that should not be the sort of figure we have for the country. Our third point relates to prices. It is a fact that prices have risen—we...
Mr Iain Macleod: That would make a very nice change if it were. I am sorry that the figures for Scotland's budget upset the hon. Lady. but quite frankly on that one I am in broad sympathy with the Treasury estimates. Although I had not the facilities available to me, I had made a not dissimilar calculation myself. The Chancellor's reply when questions on information were asked has always been the same, that...
Mr Iain Macleod: That is an argument that the hon. Member will have to take up with his own Front Bench. I am recording the detailed promises that right hon. Members oppoiste made, pushing every one of them down their throats—they do not like it—and comparing them with what has been achieved. Now we have a new story. At the Labour Party conference the Chancellor of the Exchequer said this: If we could,...
Mr Iain Macleod: Will the right hon. Gentleman permit me one point on unemployment? I have not prophesied, and I do not expect the figures to go vastly higher, apart from winter considerations, which we cannot foresee on either side of the House, but will the Chancellor, either now or through the First Secretary of State in due course, make some comment on the question of the seasonal adjustments, which have...
Mr Iain Macleod: The Chancellor will recall that a few moments ago, picking up the points of what commentators said, he started with the weight of evidence the next morning. Will he deal with my point of the first impact across the tapes and that brilliant journalists on the day were in fact misled?
Mr Iain Macleod: I have three short questions on that exciting statement. First, the White Paper of May, 1967, was fathered by the D.E.A., with the Treasury as junior partner. Can the right hon. Gentleman tell us now where Ministerial responsibility rests? Obviously, there is a considerable interest for the Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning. Is the main responsibility there, or...
Mr Iain Macleod: I shall be brief. Apart from a few traditional remarks at the end of the Third Reading debate on the Finance Bill, I shall concentrate on one important matter—the question of disallowance. My hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Sir H. d'Avigdor-Goldsmid) commented on our procedure this year. I like to think that I hold most of my views fairly consistently, but I have changed my view...
Mr Iain Macleod: For various reasons which are no one's fault in particular, we are in something of a difficulty here. When my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Sir H. d'Avigdor-Goldsmid) spoke on this matter in Committee he asked for a clearance procedure, and here is a clearance procedure. On the other hard, the Amendment was put down for Report—we understand the reasons very well—at a very...
Mr Iain Macleod: I am grateful for the support of hon. Gentlemen opposite for the Clause. However, I hope that they will not mind if I express the hope that they have now exhausted some of their eloquence. If they talk one for one with us throughout the Report stage, we shall be here for another week or two. Although that does not worry me, it might worry the Chancellor of the Exchequer and even Mr. Speaker...
Mr Iain Macleod: Further to that point of order, and on a purely practical point, I am sure that the House appreciates the extreme burden on the Chair in selecting Amendments for Report. We are extremely grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, but you will realise that the list of Amendments which have been selected was put out rather late this afternoon. Therefore, I ask that if you receive requests which there has...
Mr Iain Macleod: The House will be grateful to the Chief Secretary—although I think that the last quarter of his speech lacked his usual clarity—for the careful explanation that he has given, particularly of new Clause 33, on close companies, and new Clause 25, on partnership, which we are taking with it and to which we attach great importance. The right hon. Gentleman gave a general introduction,...
Mr Iain Macleod: On a point of order. We asked, Mr. Speaker, whether you would allow a separate Division if a particular request was made. Naturally, these two Clauses are in principle agreeable to us. Much of the criticism has centred on Amendment (k) on page 6717, in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for St. Ives (Mr. Nott), in line 20, to leave out the word "material". It has the effect of removing the...
Mr Iain Macleod: Accepting the error on the export side, about which the Chancellor told the House, does not the size of the balancing item over the last few years make it more than likely that there may be an error on the import side of the ledger? Will the Chancellor assure us that he will pursue what may be an unfavourable error with a zeal equal to that with which he pursued the favourable one?
Mr Iain Macleod: If the dominant factor is the international interest rates, how was it that in 1964 both the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party pretended that unilaterally they could bring down rates in this country?
Mr Iain Macleod: Wait for it.