HC Deb 06 May 1948 vol 450 cc1598-608

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—[Mr. Popplewell.]

11.22 p.m.

Mr. Baird (Wolverhampton, East)

I wish to raise the question of the shortage of beer in the Midlands, especially in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and in the town of Wolverhampton, part of which I have the honour to represent in this House. In my duties as a Member of Parliament, I have travelled over many parts of the country, but I think there is no other area in the country where beer supplies are so acutely short as in the West Midlands. I know, of course, that during recent weeks people in London have been grumbling because public houses have been closed for one hour, or an hour and a half, during the evening; and I know that in the country districts there are abundant supplies of beer.

It is not for me to say why there is a shortage in the Midlands, but I would like to tell the House that on Easter Sunday morning I travelled over my constituency and visited fourteen public houses. Of these, twelve were completely shut; only two were open. It is a common habit in the West Midlands for publicans to remain closed—[Interruption.] I would ask hon. Members not to regard this as a laughing matter. At the present time, it is a common habit for a public house to open on a Friday evening, remain open on Saturday and Sunday, and then to be completely closed until the following Friday evening. I tell the House that that is not exceptional at the present time, and 90 per cent. of the public houses in my town are closed for three days of the week. My hon. Friend the Member for Burton (Mr. Lyne) tells me that even in Burton, the town in which most of our beer is brewed, the public houses are closed for an average of three days a week.

Wolverhampton is a town which has heavy industries; it has iron and steel works, and in the adjoining district there are coal mines. Working men's clubs have more beer than the public houses, but a working men's club which I frequently visit has a weekly supply of 432 gallons of beer for a membership of 1,100 which uses the club consistently. There are three pints of beer a week for each member of the club. That club has a much better supply than has the average public house. It is not for me to say why we have a shortage of beer. I know very well that the working man has more money to spend under this Labour Government than he had before. There was also, during the war, a large influx of population to man the war industries. That population is still there, and there has not been an adequate increase in the barley supplies to meet the needs of this extra population. During the war, the Government took steps to see to this, because they realised that where there was a shortage of beer, something should be done to safeguard industrial production.

It is a great compliment to the workers in the West Midlands that up to the present there has been no more than grumbling. I was talking to a responsible member of the Government the other night, and he said that were conditions such as I had described to him as existing in Wolverhampton to exist in his constituency today, the miners in his constituency would be on strike tomorrow morning. The working-class people in Birmingham and Wolverhampton and in the surrounding districts have grumbled and grumbled, but they have carried on with the job. If we are to have the industrial production which is required, beer is an essential to the working man's peace of mind. It is essential that we should get supplies in the industrial areas.

I know that other hon. Members wish to speak tonight, but I want to say something further before I conclude. There is something even more iniquitous than the shortage of beer. In the Midlands we have a rather peculiar characteristic. When the cut in beer was made some two years ago, the Midland breweries, rather than reduce the standard of their beer, produced what they called "tenpenny" beer. That beer is now one shilling, though it is still known as "tenpenny" by some. Others call it "Strachey," and yet others call it "Wallop." It is one of the most terrible things to drink that it is possible for us to have. Sometimes it is mixed with the bitter beer and sold as "mixed," and at others—that is to say, even at weekends, the only time when the public houses are open—this "tenpenny" beer is sold from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; then the bitter comes on for the rest of the evening. It is impossible to describe this beer. All I can say is that the Ministry of Health must have some interest in it. Its action on the kidneys is out of all proportion to the amount consumed. It seems funny to us in the House of Commons, where there is a fairly adequate supply of beer, to talk about a shortage.

Let me finally appeal to my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to realise that the position in the Midlands in regard to this shortage is really serious. There has been, as I say, grumbling and grumbling. Let us face up to it that the working man today has had many of his little pleasures cut out, and he looks forward to going to the "local" at night, meeting his pals, smoking a pipe, having a pint of beer and a rest to get ready for the next day's labours. The position in the Midlands is entirely different from the position in the rest of the country, and the Minister must face it; otherwise, I am afraid there will be serious industrial trouble in the West Midlands.

11.29 p.m.

Mr. Bowles (Nuneaton)

I should like to add a few words as to my experience in my constituency. I quite definitely confirm what the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. Baird) has said about the shortage, and I have gone to the trouble of getting a certain number of figures for submission to the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Food. We have 75o displaced persons in ex-prisoner of war camps in Atherstone, with a large influx of population working in the opencast mines in that area as well. The situation is serious. May I very quickly give some figures to my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary and to the House. The Miners' Welfare club in Atherstone was closed three or four days a week last Summer. They had 1,200 members and received 12 barrels a week, an average of 2½ pints a week for each member. These men are miners, and a miner often loses two or three pounds a shift in an ordinary pit and up to eight pounds a week in hotter pits. Two and a half pints a week is useless to replace lost weight.

The British Legion, in 1939—and these are all ex-Service men—had 627 members and they received 283½ barrels. In 1947 the membership had gone up to 1,047 but the beer had gone down to 262 barrels. In 1946, they were closed 55 days in the year, and in 1947 for 89 days, an increase of 34 days. I went around my constituency and found the Conservative Club in 1939 had 200 members and had between two and three barrels a week. In 1947, for some reason which surprised me a little, the membership had gone up to 320, but they got the same number of barrels. That meant less beer for the members. They are closed from Sunday night to Tuesday. The Liberal Club in Atherstone in 1938 had 628 members and they got six barrels a week. That equals 300 pints. In 1947, the membership had gone up to 800 but the barrelage was the same, and in 1947 they were closed for 85 days in the year. Grendon Working Men's Club in 1945 had 1,470 members and received 63 barrels a month, which was three pints a week per member. In 1946, they had 1,400 members and received 57 barrels, that is, two and four-fifths pints a member. In 1947, they went down to 1,350 members and their barrel-age was down to 51. The Baddisley Club, where workers from the opencast mines would be welcome if they could get in, had 710 members in 1939 and in 1947 they had 920 members, with the same barrelage.

I ask my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to realise that there is, as my hon. Friend the Member for East Wolverhampton has pointed out, a great unhappiness in this area. I have letters and a joint petition from the Nuneaton and Atherstone Licensed Victuallers' Associations, which was presented to me some time at the beginning of March. I saw them and they are expecting 750 to 1,000 displaced persons in this area. I have received letters from the Atherstone Parish Council, who have complained that licensed houses are open at the most only three days a week. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, in reply to a Question, stated that beer production had gone up. I think it is right to say it has gone up eight per cent., but I am assured by the Ministry that in the Midlands it has gone up by only four per cent. Warwickshire and Staffordshire are bad. I have asked members from almost all other counties, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc., and they tell me they have nothing like the closing we have and are not in the same position.

I made it my business to lead a deputation to the Minister of Food on the Tuesday before Easter. He said he would favourably consider a suggestion we put to him. If he could get barley, he would ask the brewers to be good enough to allocate it to the areas where heavy workers were employed. He said he would favourably consider that. I hope my hon. Friend has something to say about it. I really do plead on behalf of those two counties in general, and my own constituency in particular, for an increase, for I have found, quite frankly, men hanging about the streets in my constituency because of the closing. The manager of one hotel told me that he saw people in the streets and, wondering what was happening, asked if there was to be a procession, but they said, "No, the pubs are all closed down." There is a suppressed feeling of disappointment, if not of anger and fury. I beg my hon. Friend to try, if she cannot make a statement tonight, to influence the Minister to do something.

11.36 p.m.

Mr. H. D. Hughes (Wolverhampton, West)

May I assure my hon. Friend that this is not log-rolling or even barrel-rolling by a group of West Midland Members. It is our experience that the beer shortage in Staffordshire, in particular, is far worse than in London. The average public house in Wolverhampton is closed for several nights almost every week. Only last Saturday, for example, in the centre of the town there were a number of public houses not opening until 8 o'clock at night. My experience in London and other towns which I have visited recently is that there is not to any degree the same shortage as is being felt in the West Midlands.

I am not myself clear why this is. It has puzzled me for some time. It seems to me that one of the reasons is possibly the population question. Wolverhampton's population, for example, has been steadily going up since before the war. It has now reached 150,000. It is also the kind of town which serves a large area in addition to the ordinary population. The shopping population doubles the number, and I am quite sure that when the women come in for shopping on Saturday afternoons their husbands often accompany them and drop into the pub afterwards. That is one of the reasons for the shortage of beer. I am sure that the hon. Lady the Parliamentary Secretary is aware of the merits of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who attract great crowds, and spectators can get very thirsty after watching the "Wolves" win a first division match.

Wolverhampton public houses have to serve much larger numbers than the Ministry's allocation gives credit for. I had a Question down a couple of months ago about the allocation of food supplies to the town, and the hon. Lady then told me that it was made by the Department on the basis of a 5 per cent. increase in population and in relation to the quarterly food supply. I do not think that the beer supplies can be worked out in relation to the Wolverhampton population—otherwise the shortage would not be as bad as it is. I do not want to stress matters any more, for my hon. Friend has made the point. I do not want to paint the situation in more lurid colours. But if the hon. Lady can do away with the "tenpenny" and keep the pubs open she will be the pin-up girl of the West Midlands.

11.40 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (Dr. Edith Summerskill)

As a drinker of a very occasional "shandy," I feel like an amateur in the presence of professionals, after having listened to my hon. Friend the Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. Baird) and my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Bowles). I want to assure them that the grievances which they feel the beer drinkers of the Midlands have, are shared by those who live in other counties. The Midlands have been treated in exactly the same way as all the other counties.

Since 1st May, 1946, the cut in production was to 85 per cent. of that in the year ended 31st March, 1946. Recently, we had to cut production again to 82½ per cent., because it was necessary to limit sugar consumption in the country. The hon. Member for Nuneaton was right when he said that the consumption of beer was higher than before the war. Actually, the production figure is about 112 per cent. of that for 1938–39. The increase in the Midlands area is about 108 per cent., which is less than that of the whole of the country by about 4 per cent. I think that is probably due to the low production of about two or three large breweries which produced a very small amount in the datum period, 1938–39, which is reflected in their production now. I agree that it does not necessarily follow that, although production is 108 per cent. now, the beer is being distributed necessarily in the Midlands area: there are in the Midlands many well-known brewers and there is a great demand for their beer outside.

I think hon. Members who have spoken will agree that the recent sugar cut cannot be replaced; but I will say—for, after all, that cut has perhaps been responsible for this Debate—that there were complaints before the December cut, and what my hon. Friends said about working men's clubs being better treated than public houses was absolutely wrong.

Mr. Baird

Working men's clubs can draw supplies from various brewers, but most of the public houses are tied, and are not therefore able to get supplies from several sources.

Dr. Summerskill

Even so, hon. Members brought deputations to me from working men's clubs and they made exactly the same case—saying that the clubs were open only on three or four nights of the week and asking for special consideration. We cannot replace the sugar. If we did, it would be equivalent to £465,755 a year in dollars. But there is an alternative way of doing this—by giving extra barley. I am particularly pleased tonight, because generally I have to refuse the pleas of hon. Members for further concessions. I warn hon. Members that what I am going to say may not go as far as they want us to go, but I want to make a gesture to the industrial workers of the country to show that we are mindful of their needs and recognise that, not only in the Midlands, there is an exceptional shortage today.

We propose to give an additional allocation of barley at the rate of approximately 25,000 tons a year. At the moment we are only going to allocate 8,000 tons to cover the rest of this cereals year. Actually it will cover up to the end of August. When that time comes, we shall have to reconsider the position. I want to make it quite clear that this extra barley will be distributed in the agricultural and industrial areas where there is an exceptional shortage. In the past, the Brewers' Society have been responsible for allocating barley, sugar and so on. My Ministry has always agreed with the Brewers' Society as to the amounts, but then we leave the Brewers' Society to decide how it should be allocated. Now we intend to give them 200,000 standard barrels and they are going to put this in their reserve pool and allocate two-thirds to the brewers supplying those areas I have already mentioned. They will retain one-third to meet demands that may subsequently develop in other areas.

I would remind hon. Members that although workers are, of course, demanding more beer during their working year, when holidays come and they go to Blackpool, Margate, Southend and other places, which are very popular, they will expect to find a little extra beer there—because they have leisure in which to drink there. Therefore, they are keeping one-third of the allocation in the pool and in that way they can anticipate any demand from holiday districts. Might I come now to "tenpenny" beer.

Mr. Bowles

The hon. Lady mentioned industrial and agricultural areas. Has she referred to those in the West Midlands?

Dr. Summerskill

I cannot quite specify all the areas here, but I have analysed them and I think I can undertake that every industrial area will have an allocation. It will work out at an increase of 3½ per cent. On the question of "tenpenny" beer, there is a complaint about the gravity of the beer, and I am rather shocked by the hon. Member's description of it. I will not go into the medical details: I cannot agree with him, as a doctor, that everything said as regards the medicinal value of "tenpenny" beer is true. I would tell him that although many think it is light, it is higher than the average gravity for the rest of the country, and they have got to choose between strong beer and quantity: they cannot have it both ways.

Mr. Baird

What about standard beer?

Dr. Summerskill

If the hon. Member would like to tell me what the right standard is, I would certainly consider it. I am afraid that, if he has a very high standard, he will have to postpone that for a long time to come. He said he visited 14 public-houses: that is quite unprecedented and I think he probably had a chat with the publicans. It has been my duty during the last few months to meet many publicans—and I know many excellent publicans in my own constituency. They are all really responsible men, who do not demand stronger beer, but they do demand greater quantity. Responsible publicans learn that they do not prosper on the strength of the beer, but on the amenities of the public houses themselves, in the way of accommodation, cheerful service and cleanliness. The day has gone when you had the "tough" publican who was there only to throw the "drunks" out. Some of our best public houses in these days are conducted by women who rely upon their knowledge of handling men and not on their capacity to throw them out.

On this question of strong beer I am sure hon. Members would like to hear some striking figures which I discovered when I was going into this subject, and I believe every responsible citizen in the country will welcome this information. In 1905 the convictions for drunkenness in England and Wales were 207,171; in 1938 they were 52,661; in 1946, which is the last figure available, they were 20,545. During the war years convictions for drunkenness dropped by 50 per cent. I believe that can be attributed in some part to the better conditions in the public houses; and perhaps, when we look at 1946, to the fact that a Labour Government came in in 1945, and that fear has been removed from the minds of the people, and it is not so necessary to go to the public houses to drink strong beer. Let me quote what A. E. Housman said at the end of last century, when drinking strong ale was the mode in the Midlands: Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink For fellows, whom it hurts to think, Look into the pewter pot To see the world as the world's not. I suggest to my hon. Friend who is asking for stronger beer that it is not necessary now to see the world as it is not; and that as we banish poverty and insecurity our public houses will become places where good fellowship rather than strong drink is the main attraction.

Question put, and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at Nine Minutes to Twelve o'Clock.