§ 49. Mr. Osborneasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the statement contained in paragraph 30 of Command Paper No. 7572 to the effect that the difficulties of the present economic position do not present themselves in an obvious form to the British public, what fresh steps he proposes to take to remedy this situation.
§ Mr. GaitskellThe statement to which the hon. Member refers was made in a Command Paper issued nearly two years ago. The hon. Member will no doubt recall that it was also stated in the two succeeding paragraphs of this Paper that the policy of His Majesty's Government was to give the people of this country at all times the fullest information about the economic position and to impress upon them the need for a high level of production. That is still our policy.
§ Mr. OsborneWould the Chancellor agree that the economic position today is as grave as it was two years ago when this warning was issued? If he agrees, does he not think that further steps should be taken to bring its gravity home to our people?
§ Mr. GaitskellI have an impression that the speech I made on Sunday did not exactly lack frankness.