§ This leads me to speak for a moment or two about the cost of living. I have decided to hold the present cost of living steady until further notice, even if this means an increase in the necessary Exchequer subsidies. But I would add that I am making inquiries whether we cannot hold the cost of living steady at a lower cost in total subsidies, whether we cannot here and there discover economies in the administration of these subsidies as they are now operated.
§ On the main point of holding the cost of living steady, there can be no question—I am sure that my predecessor will agree with this, because he handled this policy for several years—that this policy of keeping down the prices of the basic necessaries of life, which was begun in 1941 and continued until now, has 1878 achieved a remarkable measure of success in stabilising the level of costs and prices over a wide range of the ordinary person's current expenditure. This has helped to engender an almost unconscious sense of stability in people's minds, which was no small asset to the country during the strenuous and anxious days of the war. People's minds were not haunted this time, as they were in the last war, with the fear that prices would go sky high out of control, and by the fear that all the articles in their everyday expenditure would go on constantly rising and constantly outstripping the resources of their slender incomes. That fear has been banished by this policy, pursued by the Coalition Government since 1941, and it has been of great advantage to our people, both actually and in its psychological effect upon their minds.