§ THE EARL OF LAUDERDALEMy Lords, in the economics debate on November 17, as recorded in the OFFICIAL REPORT, Volume 312 (No. 24), at col. 1077, I inadvertently misrepresented the proposals of Mr. St. Clare Grondona made some years back for effecting realistic stability of prices for imported durable basic commodities. I attributed to him the use of certain figures which in fact he had not used. What I inadvertently said was:
… of Britain's import bill of around £2,000 million or so, something like half goes on raw materials, on commodities of a durable character.What I had intended to say, attributing the figures to Mr. Grondona, was,Of an import bill of around £8,000 million more than £1,000 million goes to pay for basic 2 products (namely, foodstuffs and industrial raw materials) that are unquestionably durable.My Lords, I apologise to the House for this mistake.