HC Deb 14 July 1971 vol 821 cc473-5
9. Mr. Sillars

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will seek to send an official Government observer to the Scottish Trades Union Congress Special Congress to be held in August.

Mr. Gordon Campbell

If an invitation is received, I shall certainly arrange, in consultation with my colleagues whose interests are also involved, for an official observer to attend.

Mr. Sillars

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that when the trade unionists gather for the special congress in August, while they are likely to welcome his belated conversion to the need for a public works programme they are most unlikely to be satisfied by the scope and size of the programme he announced yesterday? Many trade unionists believe that it should be £66 million and not £33 million, and that it is necessary for us to return to an investment grant system and to have an immediate, massive reflation of the economy as the only way to solve the unemployment problem this coming winter?

Mr. Campbell

As I have said in reply to a question from, I think, the hon. Gentleman before, we regard a public works programme as a useful contribution to dealing with the present situation, but it cannot itself be a complete solution. As to investment grants, I am very much aware of the criticism at an S.T.U.C. conference at Oban of the investment grant system. I always listen carefully to the advice of the S.T.U.C. and have met its representatives many times. It was they who particularly pressed for the establishment of a special development area in West Central Scotland, and they were extremely grateful when it was done.

Mr. Eadie

But, since the right hon. Gentleman has agreed to send an observer, will he get that observer to study in detail the prediction of the S.T.U.C. that the unemployment level in Scotland will rise to about 160,000 next winter? Will the right hon. Gentleman then come to the House and say what he thinks of that prediction?

Mr. Campbell

I am aware of the figure which the S.T.U.C. has produced but there are a number of variables which cannot be predicted and I would not be in a position to make a prediction of that kind.

Mr. Ross

In view of the gravity of the situation, would it not be better if the right hon. Gentleman addressed the S.T.U.C. and submitted himself to questioning? Would he not be able to tell it why the Government struck the great posture of cutting public expenditure last October but are now frantically seeking to increase it, and why they are urging local authorities to increase expenditure at considerable cost to the ratepayers?

Mr. Campbell

I shall not pursue the latter point made by the right hon. Gentleman. I understand that this is not the kind of conference to which I would be invited to make that kind of contribution and that Ministers, as Ministers, do not attend such conferences. But, as I have said, we are as usual ready to send an observer if an invitation is received.