§ 2.55 p.m.
§ EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH rose to move, That there be laid before the House Papers relating to the present high unemployment figure, and to the inadequate measures proposed by Her Majesty's Government. The noble Earl said: My Lords, I am grateful that we should have come to the arrangement we did about the previous Bill we were discussing, because obviously this very important matter which is covered by the Motion on the Paper in my name, which I now move, should be adequately discussed. It is not a new subject of submission to your Lordships' House by Her Majesty's Opposition. We have had debates at different times in the past, to which, perhaps, I shall refer later on. But I think that, looking back over my long life, I have seen grow, if only by stages, a recognition of what it really means to the working class people of this country if there are any long periods or if there is a widespread incidence of unemployment in this country. The position is no less poignant to members of families during this particularly difficult winter through which we are passing than it has been on previous occasions.
§ There was a day when unemployment was not considered to be a matter for action, remedial or otherwise, by the Government of the day; and I myself had reached the age of 26 before even the first rather miserable Act of unemployment insurance came into operation. Nevertheless, for many years people of good will, people of religious instincts, had been doing purely charitable work— 1251 very devoted, but obviously quite insufficient from those sources—to meet the real need. I am not going back over all that now, but I wanted to lay before your Lordships once more the fact that the Labour Party, of all Parties, has been built up to a considerable extent because of inhibitions upon the development of life in working-class homes by the uncertainty, in the economic course of this country, of their employment, of their residence and of the hopes of their families.
§ My Lords, we have put a Motion down on the Paper which, I think, is not unduly violent in its language, but your Lordships will understand, I am sure, that the fact that it is mildly drafted does not mean that we feel any the less anxious about it. What is the situation? We are now on the way to the completion—we have not reached it yet—of the eighteenth year after the close of the war in 1945, and the position taken up then, in 1945, by the Government to which I was proud to belong was that our aim was and must be, not only for dealing with the immediate and pressing necessities arising out of the war but as the absolutely cardinal policy of the Party, to work for full employment. And, in view of all the difficulties with which we had to contend, I still consider that we removed the experience of that time far away from what had been the experience in the less difficult and less pressing economic circumstances from 1918 to 1926. We did a great deal, and introduced new measures, new schemes. One of the reasons why we attach importance to our comment on the inadequacy of the Government's plans for dealing with present unemployment is that we consider that in what has been proposed by Her Majesty's Government there is nothing of any kind which is fundamentally new to deal with the problem of unemployment, or to organise and conduct scientific development of production, and expanding production, which is essential if a growing population is to enjoy full employment.
§ I must say that, as I look back over the years from 1945 to 1951—a period which some Conservative speakers in the Houses of Parliament and in the country would have us think was a dreadful, ailing period of constant infla- 1252 tion—I see there were matters in which we made very great progress and without the operation of the schemes arising therefrom we should not have been able to make reasonably full employment operative. It is, of course, true to say that one of the main and dynamic schemes we put into operation was to have a proper plan, with proper controls, for the distribution of industry according to the needs of the population, tying it in with a general policy of expanding production.
§ There is nothing new in whatever the Government seem to be attempting today in that direction. If they are doing it with the full realisation of the task they have to achieve, and its solution, then they should be doing a lat more Than they are. We have had a good deal of hullabaloo about this and that scheme being adopted. We are now to have—after discussion and delays—the further development of electric power stations. We hear that some special attention is to be given by the Leader of the House—who already has four other operative jobs—on behalf of the Cabinet, to the needs of the North-East of the country. We sometimes criticise his speeches, but none of us wishes him anything but well if he can secure success for the relief of unemployment and the real expansion of industry. We want that for our country and for our people. But when we hear all the cavilling that he sometimes makes (and he has been doing it over the weekend), because he does not like the criticism of the Opposition from time to time, as I understand it, and when we look at this matter and how it ought to be dealt with, I would just refer to a figure collected by Mr. Harold Wilson, when he was President of the Board of Trade, and see how it works out. In running our campaign then for the expansion and scientific distribution of industry, we built—in a variety of sizes, in various places and for various trades and skills—1,700 factories in six years. And the Government shared the cost. which was over £100 million. I wonder what sort of contribution has been made so far by the present Government.
§ Another thing that I feel ought to be said is this: that the general economic position of the country is very much affected by the new and advancing growth of unemployment and 1253 by the stagnation in production. I confess to your Lordships that I was immediately put in mind of what I had to speak about to-day as to the Government's faults in this matter by two or three words from the speech of the noble Marquess, Lord Salisbury, yesterday about the Central African Federation. He described the Government as "shuffling arid shifting". As I look back upon all the speeches we on these Benches have made, the urgency with which we have brought this question before this House, as well as before another place, I feel that the Government have been often over-confident. To-day the Chancellor of the Exchequer says: "It is not confidence we want"— although I think that the Government are rather in the middle of a campaign to try to restore some more confidence in the country which they lost in the last few months, over the breakdown of the negotiations in Brussels. But, says Mr. Maudling: "It is not confidence we want. What we need is to be determined; and determined to get things done". That is exactly how we on these Benches feel about it.
§ But what have the Government done? We saw a meeting yesterday, convened on a Sunday to suit some convenience (we do not complain, but it is not exactly the thing to do), of the National Economic Development Council. And I believe the Council are sitting to-day. The Council were discussing what should be done. We were solemnly informed in a broadcast the other night that they had finished their task, and we expected, from the announcement made in the public Press, that they would produce a policy. Now we understand that all that is to be issued is a report of an examination of the problem. There is not enough urgency about it.
§ As to the real attitude of the Government, what revelations we have had over the weekend! They are quite extra-ordinary! One needs only to go to the Press, either on Sunday where, in the Observer, there was a very adequate report; or in The Times of yesterday, to read of the speeches which were made to the Young Conservatives' Conference—who, incidentally, really passed a motion of censure upon their own Party. And this, I felt, was the only thing on 1254 which they agreed. They called upon the Government to redouble their efforts to deal with unemployment—to redouble their efforts! They must have had a poor view of what had happened up till then. I am not quite sure whether this motion was carried unanimously, or whether there were a few dissentients. But the speeches made on behalf of the Government were amazing to me.
§ I will not deal with all Mr. Macmillan's homilies to youth: some of them were very much felt by him, and in some respects were really desirable to make. But when he and Mr. Maudling agreed in substance with this speech before it came to be confirmed by the speech in Scotland of the noble Viscount the Leader of the House, what they were concerned about was not merely to think about restoration of confidence; not so much about what should be done about expansion now, as something immediate. Oh, no! After practically eleven and a half years in office they announced solemnly to the youth of their Party that they hoped in the remaining period of the lifetime of this Government to commence building foundations for the things ahead. That is astonishing to me. What have they really done in those eleven years?
§ However, the noble Viscount the Leader of the House himself, perhaps wanting to put a time limit on how long this great operation of building the foundations was going to take, because apparently they have lost their own at present, said that he wanted to build the new Britain of 30 years hence. I looked up the date of the noble Viscount's birth. He will be 86 then. I know that he will not mind my saying that to him, because I am a lot older than he. If we examine the ages of the youngest men in the Government, we see that they will all be very old gentlemen 30 years hence. I must say that I was very disappointed about that. What we need is action, and action now.
§ What has happened in the life of the Government to lead up to the present situation? In 1945 to 1951 we were regarded as a Government as being repressive, as keeping the people down, as operating rigid controls. So the Conservative slogan in 1951 was, "Set the people free!". Free for what? All controls were abolished; and what has been the result? We have had a shuffling and 1255 a shifting. We have had a stop and a go. We have had to meet financial crisis after financial crisis, with, after each, a complete reversal in a few weeks of the Government's idea of how to meet it.
§ And what do the Government say about what they are going to do now? Mr. Maudling says that they are prepared to take the greatest risks to deal with this. Fancy that! Let us see how they were talking last July. The Budget was introduced by a man who was soon after got rid of from the Government, perhaps for the very reason—I do not know—that he introduced measures which meant more than £100 million worth of deflation; and now, within six or seven months, the Government are saying that they are perpared to take monetary risks—any monetary risks—to deal with a problem, which is admitted by Mr. Macmillan to have been, at least in part, due this winter to the uncertainty among financial and capitalist leaders because of the long-drawn-out discussions with regard to the Common Market. And so it has happened all the way through the last eleven years. First, a bonanza Budget, as has been prophesied in the Express newspapers over the week-end. On Saturday, the Daily Express said that many Conservative Members were looking for an early Election after a really good Election Budget. The Sunday Express said that, while there would be a Budget, it might be more politic to wait until May next year for an Election.
§ In the same way, we have had the Government setting high interest rates, which is the only remedy of control that the Government ever seem to put into operation, and which, starting with the bank rate and percolating into the realm of savings, building societies and so on, have the effect of making it difficult for industry and of keeping hack the development of the workers. By this continually happening, we have failed to develop production compared with production in other countries. And, with all this, so far as I can see, the National Debt we owe has not been reduced at all. We have had constant uncertainty in industry and its leadership, and in the minds of the workers a lack of confidence which continues to-day, as we can see from Press reports.
§ In one month there have been 33,000 applications for migration to Australia 1256 alone—something like 1,000 a day. There have been something like 700 applications in a month for migration to New Zealand, a much smaller country, and there has been a 25 per cent. increase in applications for migration to Canada. Of course, in many respects, good, sound, healthy migration to these Dominions, who were the only people who stood by us when we needed them in 1940, is something to be glad of. But when we think of the comments which have been made in Conservative circles about the tremendous advance of the market in the E.E.C. being largely sustained by migration of large numbers of workers from East Germany and other East European countries, and when we think of the fact that we have been admitting coloured workers in quite large numbers, although we are now beginning to restrict some of them while our skilled and semi-skilled British people are applying in increasing numbers to leave this country altogether, we realise that this is a problem about which we have to think seriously.
§ All this has been brought up in my mind by the financial and economic policies of the Government. There is no need for it This Government have not had to conduct a war, such as we had to share in Korea, in the midst of all our economic difficulties. This Government have had plain sailing, and they have been assisted in many ways, not least by the development of agriculture and the use of machinery in agriculture, and the lift that this gave to the exports of machinery abroad. Yet, with it all, this country has made the minimum average of the expanded production that we ought to have to meet the increasing fecundity and population in this country. These are very serious problems.
§ On two occasions we have had these monetary restrictions for a year or two and then a Budget preceding an Election, a Budget giving things away to the citizens by the handful, and then the snatching of them back six months after the Government had been re-elected with an increased majority. I hope the House will forgive me for going back over ground which it is essential to cover when one comes to deal with the present position.
§ What is the situation now? Let us look at unemployment. We had in the list of figures issued on January 24, 814,000 persons registered as unemployed. And 1257 if you are holding the view that this figure is almost entirely due to the wintry weather, I think you will be wrong, as Mr. Jay pointed out in the other place more than a fortnight ago. We can take for certain that the figures for the wholly unemployed give us the answer to that. Of that 814,000, there were 605,000 wholly unemployed at that date in January; and the balance was made up of temporarily unemployed and school leavers who had not yet found employment. When you come to look at the spread of unemployment, surely you must have something to think about. I noticed that the noble Viscount, Lord Massereene and Ferrard, is to speak in this debate; and I hope that he will, because one of the worst spots for unemployment is Northern Ireland. There have been times, I have noticed as I have come through the various weeks, when the figure for this area has reached 8 per cent., 9 per cent. and 9½ per cent of the employable people. This is a very high percentage in peace time, certainly in modern circumstances. I am glad to see that, in the ordinary course of the development of the rather small Navy on which we can pride ourselves to-day, some work is going to Belfast to help that situation. But that enough is being done at this time is surely very questionable.
§ Then I look at the figure of unemployed for the North-East. That is a figure of 6.5 per cent. Really, in order to get a proper view of that, you have to compare the 6.5 per cent. in the North-East now with a figure of something varying between 1.8 per cent. and 2 per cent. in 1951. If you look at the position in Scotland, where since the period of office of this Government they have had a more continuous fairly high unemployment figure than perhaps any other area—although at the date in January to which I refer it did not appear to be quite such a high percentage as that in the NorthEast—you see that the figure is 5.9 per cent., as compared with the last figure issued before that, 5.4 per cent.
§ Then, if you look at the other area, in Wales, you find a figure of 5.7 per cent.; and special efforts are now being made there. But, as has been pointed out again and again by trade unions, who, of course, have to deal through their branches with local pockets or even wide local areas of unemployment, very often 1258 when these figures came out it was overlooked that there was a district, such as Merseyside, including all that part of Lancashire, in which unemployment was up to 6.8 per cent. in January, with, apparently, very little being done at that time to deal with the matter. And there is the question of a locality such as Hartlepool, which is of course included in the North-East. How well I know that area! And what a grand job of work the people both in West Hartlepool and in Hartlepool on the coast, did for this country! There were in that area 15 per cent. unemployed in January.
§ If I may come down to what seems hardly needful to say, I went back to my native place of Weston-super-Mare, a seaside town, last Thursday and Friday. There is a seaside town which has taken over the responsibility for a large overspill population from Birmingham, and which was helped by the Labour Government in 1948. They have now built an enormous estate to house people there, and with the grants that were made in 1948 an industry was started which has been dealing with contracts from the Admiralty. The percentage of unemployment in Weston-super-Mare last week was 6.4. Yet to-day, due to the manner in which this Government are treating development in the other areas up North, after building up a new town within a town to help the over-population of another district, Weston-super-Mare is losing all its contracts with the War Office at three months' notice because they want to transfer them elsewhere. Who, then, in that small seaside town of Weston-super-Mare meets the charge for the extra maintenance following new projects and the like? I am unable to fathom yet exactly how the Government are managing their scheme.
§ The noble Viscount the Leader of the House is a man of character, but, like so many of us, perhaps, in the political world, he has his good, medium and very indifferent parts. When the noble Viscount is speaking upon great moral issues, I always listen to him with respect. But when he is dealing with some of the great political questions that come up, I wonder why he does not stick more to the other last. The charges he has made from time to time against people who hold my political views have been extraordinary; and the warnings he has given us, with book 1259 and bell, have from time to time perhaps irritated us as much as he now thinks he is irritated by our criticism of him. I say that in all kindness. But I look back to the debate that we had in this House in 1959. I will not comment upon the language of that debate and the little quarrels that we had in the course of it, but I would ask the noble Viscount the Leader of the House to go back and read the actual substance of his defence of his Government's indifferent attitude (that was my view, at any rate) to the problem of unemployment and economic and productive expansion.
§ We had a similar debate (I wish I could remember all the detailed words) in November, 1960. I wonder if the noble Viscount would like to recall what was said then. Of course, he will not have much time to do so before he gets up to speak. How vital the words then spoken would have been if they could be proved to have been correctly fulfilled in all respects! And in 1961 the noble Viscount defended stoutly the general policy of the Government in this matter. Now we have Daniel come to judgment, and we have 814,000 unemployed in January. And did your Lordships notice this weekend that the Chancellor of the Exchequer exhorted the Young Conservatives, "Don't worry too much about what the next figures are going to be". In other words, "Leave it to us. Don't worry about it".
§ There are 2¾ million lives within the homes affected by the unemployment of 814,000 people. I am delighted that some increases in the social benefits are to be distributed, but they will in large part—not wholly, because the Government make a substantial contribution—be met by further charges m the insurance schemes to be paid by the employer, the worker and industry, which will raise doubts about the possibility of our being able to compete in a growingly competitive foreign market. I estimate that for the relief of the immediate needs of those people, we are now paying out more than £3 million a week. I hope the noble Viscount, the Leader of the House, will be able to tell us what is the figure to be published this week of unemployment at the present time.
§ We must, of course, expand, and perhaps the House of Lords will excuse 1260 me, as I come towards the close of what I have to say, if I utter a word of warning, not only to the Government but to the whole nation, about the general productive and financial outlook and what should be perhaps the best possible attitude, not only of employers but also of the workers themselves. The budgetary position for any Government, whether a re-elected one or one which is in forecast, is bound to be difficult. There is practically no amortisation of the fixed National Debt charges; it is still a large floating debt. We have all these extra things to think about. All Parties are committed to a wide extension of education. I look at the budget for education of the nation as a whole. It amounted to £1,063 million last year, and you have yet to deal with the gap which will come when you try to adopt fully the smaller numbers in classes, or to raise the school-leaving age eventually to 16. I prophesy that, on present rates of basic cost, your whole education budget will not be less than £1,500 million to £1,600 million. I am quite sure that with his knowledge of education the Leader of the House will agree. All political Parties have committed themselves to these necessary progresses.
§ We have already been told in advance that the White Paper will show that the military budget this year—I have not yet seen it—will be much larger than that for last year, even though the Government have been able to provide us with only about one-third of the strength of the defence forces we had eleven or twelve years ago. These are extraordinary figures, and when we come to the actual budgetary side of the other urgent and necessitous things in the social life of our people, to eke out the position for the aged, the blind, the halt and the poor—which we have been doing to an increasing extent, thank God!—we shall have a lot more to do. When we come to look at the Budget it will not be for £6,000 million, but a great deal more. You talk now as if you can say at a moment's notice, when you have suddenly realised at last what unemployment and reducing production means: "We will take the utmost risks, if necessary, in order to secure our purpose." I hope you will not be afraid of taking undue risks; but you must, at the same time, take sufficient precautions that you do 1261 not legislate so that the common people waste what they earn. This has been the betting Government.
§ LORD LINDGRENBingo.
EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLS-BOROUGHI think betting is much stronger than Bingo; nevertheless, it seems to be classed in the same general way. This country is going to spend in the next year, based upon the experience of last year—that is, weather permitting and racing resumed—on various forms of gambling something like £750 million. You could restart your industry and boost it for years on that basis. But you passed two minor Bills helping gambling in all kinds of minor ways, and then you had a Betting Bill, with the betting shops. As one drives or goes in the bus in the afternoon, one can see the women waiting for the result of the 2.15 and the 2.45, and then being urged to bet on the 3.15. We have to face it in all classes in this community, if we are going to do the right thing and make sure, first, that we have full employment, secondly, that we can afford to come to the assistance of those who suffer handicap, injury and loneliness, and, thirdly, that we shall be able to give our children an education with an advanced outlook upon religious and moral life that they do not yet seem to have grasped. I beg to move for Papers.
§ Moved, That there be laid before the House Papers relating to the present high unemployment figure, and to the inadequate measures proposed by Her Majesty's Government.—(Earl Alexander of Hillsborough.)
§ THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)My Lords, I think it would probably be convenient if the two statements were made now.