§ 3. Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Trade what estimate he has made of the Scottish balance of trade over the last three years, and of the prospects for the next five years.
§ Mr. DellNone, Sir. But I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave as Paymaster-General to a Question by my hon. Friend the member for Aberdare (Mr. Evans) on 5th February 1976.
§ Mr. HamiltonI thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Will he see that any figures available to him are given the maximum publicity, the more so since it now appears that all the media, including BBC Scotland—in view of the antics of the present Chairman—are on one side of the argument? Will my right hon. Friend take steps to make another official visit to Scotland to present the facts to the people?
§ Mr. DellI am grateful to my hon. Friend for suggesting that I make another visit to Scotland. I am always delighted to do that, and I shall be delighted on any occasion to repeat to the people of Scotland the facts that I put before the House. Nevertheless, I do not believe that economic considerations will govern decisions about the future unity of the United Kingdom. That is more soundly based than anything that would be decided by such questions, although they are important if Scotland is considering whether she can sensibly go it alone.
§ Mr. Teddy TaylorIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that if he does not publish as many figures as are available facts will be manufactured by those who want to break up Britain? Will he consider carefully the point made by the hon. Member for Fife, Central (Mr. Hamilton) and join all of us in condemning the silly, rather foolish and irresponsible pronouncements made yesterday by the Chairman of BBC Scotland?
§ Mr. DellI am afraid that I have not seen those pronouncements. But I shall do all that I can to publicise what seem to me to be the relevant economic considerations in those arguments, without, however, claiming that these are the fundamental arguments in this discussion.