HC Deb 18 March 1958 vol 584 c1073
20. Mr. Darling

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will reexamine the provisions for enforcing individual retail price maintenance in the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956, as recommended by Lord Cohen's Council on Prices. Productivity and Incomes.

Sir D. Eccles

No Sir, it is too soon after the passing of the Act to reopen this question.

Mr. Darling

If the Government are not going to take any notice of this part of the Cohen Report and employers and trade unions are to pick out only those parts of it with which they agree, is it not time to close the whole thing down and allow Sir Dennis Robertson to write his prejudiced opinions in the economic journals instead of giving them the authority of a Government Report?

Sir D. Eccles

The Report was addressed to the nation at large and not to the Government, and we can all have our views about it.

Mr. Jay

Does the President agree with this recommendation of the Council?

Sir D. Eccles

I have said that I do not think it is timely to take up that point.