§ 4. Dame Irene Wardasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give an assurance that, in controlling inflation and maintaining voluntary negotiation for applications for increased wages and salaries, he will not disproportionately restrict expenditure on social and cultural projects which relieve hardship.
§ Mr. SimonI can certainly assure my hon. Friend that it is my right hon. Friend's aim to observe due proportion in all things.
§ Dame Irene WardWhile thanking my hon. and learned Friend for that delightful Answer, may I ask him whether he will bear in mind, when considering the "due proportion", that a high standard in the arts is of spiritual value to a nation and that a high standard is also bound up with our European civilisation, which it is the aim and object of most hon. Members to preserve?