§ Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles (Winchester)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I wish to present a public petition on behalf of boat builders and boat users.
I want to make it clear at the outset that, although my family have been concerned with this industry since the last century, I have no financial interest to declare today.
The petition was brought to Parliament by river in a small boat which is a veteran of Dunkirk by the son of the man who took her to Dunkirk. I present the petition on behalf of the 30,000 people directly employed in boat yards, the much larger numbers indirectly concerned in the industry and the multitude of people from every constituency in the United Kingdom who go afloat for healthy recreation in 750,000 boats and dinghies.
The petition is in these words:
The humble petition of members of the Ship and Boat Builders' National Federation representing the British boating industry.Whereas the Chancellor of the Exchequer has proposed in his Budget speech on 15th April that value added tax be increased to 25 per centum on the retail value of boats and their equipment and that such a step would be harsh and inequitable.Wherefore your petitioners pray that Parliament do enact legislation to provide for the rate of value added tax on boats and their equipment to be reduced forthwith to the standard rate of 8 per centum.And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray".It is signed by David Sanders, the president, Thomas Webb, the director-general, and Paul Wagstaffe, the secretary-general.I beg leave to present the petition.
§ To lie upon the Table.