§ 47. Sir W. Smithersasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the purchasing power of the £1 in April, 1948, as compared with October, 1938, to include the whole field of personal expenditure and reckoning the value of the cost of living subsidies at 13s. a week per family, respectively.
§ Sir S. CrippsFifty-seven per cent. reckoned over the whole field of personal expenditure. The proviso about subsidies in the Question cannot be brought into the calculation; but it is, of course, the case that in the absence of the subsidies, the purchasing power of the pound would be less.
§ Sir W. SmithersWill the Chancellor of the Exchequer point out, in the bulletins and other papers he issues which boast about the work of the Socialists, that the purchasing power of the pound is still going down?
§ Sir S. CrippsI am afraid that I do not issue any such papers.
§ Sir W. SmithersYou do.