Mr Herbert Williams: Well, what about them? I do not know why a remark like that, which is inclined to be offensive, should not be withdrawn, because the implication is that I am getting something to which I am not entitled. I do not conduct my affairs in that way, and I never have done. I make a complete declaration of all the allowances I get for expenses, and I charge against them the expenses which I am...
Mr Herbert Williams: I sometimes wonder whether everybody who appears on the B.B.C. or on television, or writes articles for publication, makes a full disclosure. The situation revealed by the Chancellor is very grim in one respect. His first Budget was a deliberately grim one, designed to save us from inflation, and, a year later, he was able to introduce his second Budget to stimulate efficiency. It had that...
Mr Herbert Williams: For nearly 50 years I have studied problems of medicine in various aspects and in a non-expert capacity, and what I have said about infantile mortality is absolutely true. The figures were static until 1900, then they started to drop. They used to average 160 per 1,000 of the population, but, last year, the figure was less than 30, and Croydon has the lowest figures in the United Kingdom....
Mr Herbert Williams: The Budget is the result of expenditure, and I was discussing one aspect of expenditure, while hon. Members opposite are very anxious that I should not. However, I will continue with the rest of my speech. I have always taken the view that there is a great restriction on our freedom which ought to be abolished. I refer to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Even in this rather humble...
Mr Herbert Williams: The late Philip Snowden, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer, appointed a committee to consider by what method the Gold Standard could be restored. When the present Prime Minister found himself at the Exchequer he received the report of that committee. In his first Budget he announced the restoration of the Gold Standard from the following morning. It was the first Budget speech I had ever...
Mr Herbert Williams: If the hon. Gentleman —
Mr Herbert Williams: Certainly, Sir Rhys. I am doing so for the purpose of urging convertibility, which, I understand, has been the subject of discussion in every Budget we have had since 1945. I want to show that on two occasions it came off. We were pushed off the Gold Standard, and the £ had to find its own level when we were face to face with a very heavy adverse balance of payments. It is true that a few...
Mr Herbert Williams: I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend. I hope, Sir Rhys, that he will catch your eye and retain it sufficiently long to deal with this matter. I know that I have taken some time. I do not normally speak at great length unless provoked by unnecessary interruptions. They do not worry me in the least, but I do like occasionally to complete a sentence. As I said in a previous financial...
Mr Herbert Williams: It is no use picking out one item. The balloon may be going up for all I know. One has to take the general range of commodities. Household budgets are certainly up, because people are doing themselves so much better. Of course they are. I think one hon. Member has mentioned old-age pensioners, but I remember Mr. Ernest Bevin, as Minister of Labour, being pestered to increase old-age...
Mr Herbert Williams: I cannot make another half-hour speech, but if the hon. Member will come into the Library I shall show him where cuts can be made. The Admiralty, the War Office, the Air Force—the whole lot; there is not one in which there is not waste. Waste is characteristic of Governments.
Mr Herbert Williams: Tory, Liberal or Labour—and the whole history of Socialism is profligacy. If any hon. Member wants to study economy I shall be only too glad to spend an hour in the Library for his benefit. I hope that the Chancellor will continue bis success in general economic affairs, but that he will cut expenditure because, quite honestly, the burden on industry today is such that many prosperous...
Mr Herbert Williams: How can we set money aside if we have no money to set aside? When 70 per cent, of a surplus is taken in taxation there is nothing left to set on one side.
Mr Herbert Williams: Will my right hon. Friend say what grant would have to be made to the Medical Research Council in order to allow hon. Members to draft shorter supplementary questions to which the Minister can make shorter answers?
Mr Herbert Williams: On a point of order. May I be informed of the urgency which required this answer to be read now? Could it not perfectly well have been printed in HANSARD tomorrow?
Mr Herbert Williams: Further to my earlier point of order. Might I draw attention to the fact that back benchers have now been deprived of 11 minutes of their debating time?
Mr Herbert Williams: I think the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Dr. Stross) and I have the same general purpose in mind, and I imagine that the debate could take place on the Instruction in my name, if the hon. Gentleman is agreeable.
Mr Herbert Williams: I beg to move, That it be an Instruction to the Committee on the Bill to leave out Clause 4. It may seem a little unusual that I, who happen to be a Liveryman of the City of London and therefore entitled to vote in their various proceedings, should apparently be opposing something which they want to do, but fundamentally that is not my purpose. My main purpose is to obtain a debate on air...
Mr Herbert Williams: I am glad to hear a medical man agree with that statement. I have consulted my personal doctor who is rather knowledgeable on the subject, and he takes the same view. The Committee on Air Pollution in paragraph 5 of its Report says: Both medical opinion and chemical investigation indicate that the deleterious effects of the oxides of sulphur are greatly enhanced by the presence of smoke...
Mr Herbert Williams: But what action? Clause 4 says not a word about sulphur dioxide. Clause 4 (9) says: Nothing in this section shall apply to smoke emitted from a railway locomotive. I have in my hand the statutes enacted between 1845 and 1849. When our predecessors passed the Railway Clauses Act in 1845 they enacted Section 114, which stated that every locomotive engine to be used on railways should, if it...
Mr Herbert Williams: A non-domestic area is easier than a domestic area.
