Mr Fred Blackburn: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. I myself was stopped by a previous Speaker from moving an Amendment to which I had not put down my name.
Mr Fred Blackburn: I wish to congratulate the hon. and learned Member for Darwen (Mr. Fletcher-Cooke) first upon his luck in the Ballot and secondly upon his choice of subject. I am in general agreement with what he said. He will not have very much longer to wait to learn the details of the Labour Party programme. I think that most hon. Members who represent constituencies concerned with the textile industry...
Mr Fred Blackburn: My hon. Friend has just confirmed the point I was making. As I said earlier, no other cotton industry has to face such difficulties as ours. I wonder why there are no wholesale closures in the Common Market countries. The answer is that the total level of Asian imports and cheap textiles is only 2 per cent. of home consumption. It is true that under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade...
Mr Fred Blackburn: I hoped that the hon. Member for Worcester (Mr. Walker) would work round to 1963.
Mr Fred Blackburn: May we deal with the Purchase Tax?
Mr Fred Blackburn: I thank the hon. Member for resolving my bewilderment.
Mr Fred Blackburn: If the hon. Member proceeds with this argument he will become out of order. If he will think over what he has been saying he will realise that he has been introducing a number of matters which are not contained in the Clause.
Mr Fred Blackburn: Order. We are not debating the philosophy of the Liberal Party.
Mr Fred Blackburn: That is not a point of order for me.
Mr Fred Blackburn: You will appreciate, Mr. Speaker, that it is a relief to be fortunate enough to catch your eye. I listened to the whole of yesterday's debate and I must begin by saying that nothing that was said from the benches opposite in any way helped to change my views or even to modify them. Nor have the remarks of the right hon. Gentleman been any more successful today. I am tempted to answer the...
Mr Fred Blackburn: I am usually prepared to give way, but the hon. Gentleman spent very little time in the Chamber yesterday. A lot of my hon. Friends are anxious to speak and I am anxious to register my views. In any case, I know that the hon. Gentleman is opposed to me, so there seems little point in my giving way to him. There is a lot of talk about giving a subsidy to the bus services when the railways...
Mr Fred Blackburn: I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman. We know that he is one of the chief defenders of the Government Front Bench. The whole trouble, as has been said, is that Dr. Beeching was given the wrong terms of reference. It boils down to the fact that the Government said to him, "Money is our god. We are concerned only with profit and profitability. Do not take into account the convenience of...
Mr Fred Blackburn: I am sorry—1 per cent. Does not the right hon. Gentleman know that a great many of our roads do not carry 1 per cent. of the traffic? Are we to close all those? No—they have to be kept going at public expense. It is a great argument. There is a tendency for us to look at our problems in isolation. We look at the loss on the railways, but do we, at the same time, think of the tragedy and...
Mr Fred Blackburn: No, I cannot give way.
Mr Fred Blackburn: No, I did not ask for the figures, because when I heard that I said, "You" need not worry, because what you have already said is probably more valuable than the figures. There is obviously something to hide." One advantage of this station is that my constituents are able to book on the Pullman that leaves from Manchester. Of course, there is not any convenient train connecting with the...
Mr Fred Blackburn: I agree entirely. There is no consideration whatever in these proposals for the Manchester commuter, compared with London. These are considerations which really should be taken into account, and that is what I meant when I said that I made no apology for raising constituency points. It is only when one shows what the effect will be upon the local people that the full implications of the...
Mr Fred Blackburn: No. I did not want to embarrass the stationmaster by pressing him for information. Obviously, he had been given instructions that no figures should be given, so I took it for granted that none would be available.
Mr Fred Blackburn: asked the Minister of Labour how many young people under 18 years of age are unemployed in Hyde, Stalybridge, Dukinfield, Longdendale and Tintwistle, respectively; and what were the comparable figures for 1962.
Mr Fred Blackburn: asked the Minister of Labour if he will state the latest figures of unemployed in Hyde, Stalybridge, Dukinfield, Longdendale and Tintwistle, respectively; what proportion of the working population these figures represent; and what were the comparable figures for 1962.
Mr Fred Blackburn: The hon. Gentleman has not been restricted in what he has said as much as he ought to have been. If he will turn to Erskine May, page 738, he will find there that on the Supplementary Estimates savings cannot be discussed.