HC Deb 03 December 1963 vol 685 cc966-7
26. Mr. Boyden

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what were the costs of the Customs and Excise advertisements of August, 1963, announcing details for the registration of gaming in clubs; and for what reasons were pictures of eighteenth century gaming clubs included in the advertisements.

Mr. Maudling

The cost was £21,920. The picture was included to attract interest and attention to the letter-press, and it seems to have succeeded.

Mr. Boyden

Is this the right hon. Gentleman's contribution to the Government's modernisation plan? Is it the Government's policy to encourage gambling and dress it up in eighteenth century aristocratic trappings?

Mr. Maudling

With respect, that is a pretty feeble supplementary question. The House agreed that we should acquire information about gambling and gaming. We therefore placed an obligation on a very large number of people to register what they were doing, and we thought it right to use every means we could to let people know what their new obligations were.

Mr. Boyden

Would it not have been better to have spent at least half that money on advertising disabled people's entitlement to post-war credits to which my hon. Friends have just referred?

Mr. Maudling

No, because half the money would not have achieved our purpose.