PRIME MINISTER (SPEECH) (Hansard, 20 July 1971)

§ Q5. Mr. Hugh Jenkins
asked the Prime Minister if he will place a copy of his public speech at Bexley on 3rd July on the economy in the Library.

§ Q6. Mr. John D. Grant
asked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a copy of his public speech at Bexley on 3rd July concerning inflation.

§ Q9. Mr. Skinner
asked the Prime Minister whether he will place in the Library a copy of the public speech which he made at Bexley on 3rd July on the national economy.

§ Q13. Mr. Arthur Davidson
asked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a copy of his speech in Bexley on Saturday 3rd July on prices.

§ The Prime Minister
I did so on 7th July.

§ Mr. Hugh Jenkins
Is the Prime Minister aware that in order to ask him 1256 a supplementary question about the Central Policy Review Unit, I had to ask this Question about his speech in Bexley and, worse still, I had to read the dull document? Will he suggest to the Table Office that his "think tank" is supposed to be engaged on matters of public importance and that Members of Parliament—[HON. MEMBERS : "Reading."]—I have in my hand the right hon. Gentleman's speech ; I do not want to read that. Will he suggest to the Table Office that Members of Parliament should be entitled to ask him direct questions on these matters of public importance, such as the consideration of the Concorde project, and should not have to go through the ludicrous farce of asking questions about his speeches?

§ The Prime Minister
It has long been the tradition that, as far as the Cabinet Office and connected bodies at the centre are concerned, detailed questions about the work they are doing are not answered and the information is not given to the House, for the simple reason that the Cabinet Secretariat, and those closely allied with it, are covering the whole field of Government.

§ Mr. John D. Grant
Would the Prime Minister accept that there is considerable support for the Government's measures on purchase tax, but that there can be little or no effect from that reduction on the horrific rises in food prices? Would he, therefore, consider, as his quickest and best single contribution to halting the rise in food prices, cutting at a stroke the Minister of Agriculture?

§ The Prime Minister
As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced yesterday, the cuts in purchase tax will make a considerable reduction in prices. One has to consider the cost of living as a whole and the standard of living as a whole. Anybody who looked at the headlines in the evening newspapers would have seen that my right hon. Friend has cut prices at a stroke.

§ Mr. Skinner
Does the Prime Minister realise that the cuts in purchase tax—which, incidentally, he heralded in his Bexley speech—were for one specific purpose, namely, to catch a few paltry votes on the Common Market issue from both sides of the House, but that for millions of old-age pensioners these purchase tax cuts are meaningless? How many fur 1257 coats and colour television sets do they buy? All they have to look forward to is a 10 per cent. increase in pensions, already gobbled up by a 10 per cent. increase in food prices made by his profiteering friends at the C.B.I.

§ The Prime Minister
I am interested and impressed to hear that the hon. Gentleman, speaking on behalf of his party, is entirely opposed to the measures announced yesterday.

§ Mr. Peter Mills
Would my right hon. Friend say when was the last time that a Socialist Government cut taxation—and cut tax on food as well?

§ The Prime Minister
One would need an historian to find the date.

§ Mr. Faulds
As we are discussing the right hon. Gentleman's speeches, could he devise some way in which we may know the difference between which of these speeches and quips he writes himself and which are prepared by Mr. Bryan Forbes?

§ The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman can reassure himself. My speeches have nothing whatever to do with Equity, or stage or screen.

§ Mr. Kenneth Baker
In view of the initiative by the C.B.I. for voluntary price restraint, and in view of the Chancellor's package of expansionist measures announced yesterday, will the Prime Minister arrange a Ministerial meeting with Mr. Vic Feather, Mr. Hugh Scanlon and Mr. Jack Jones, so that these trade union leaders should not be denied the opportunity of making their own contribution to strengthening the British economy?

§ The Prime Minister
I think that the last meeting of N.E.D.C. at which these matters were discussed was a very fruitful meeting indeed, and it has been followed by the C.B.I. initiative. I hope that the next meeting of N.E.D.C. in August will be equally fruitful and it will give Mr. Feather and the members of the T.U.C. the opportunity of responding both to the C.B.I. initiative and to the measures announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

§ Mr. Michael Foot
In order to clear up this question about the C.B.I., will the Prime Minister make quite clear on how many occasions in recent months the 1258 T.U.C. has urged the Government to reflate the economy?

§ The Prime Minister
I wish I could also state on how many occasions it had offered wage restraint.