§ 52. Mr. Callaghanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why, as stated in the White Paper, Incomes Policy: The Next Step, he does not regard increases in the cost of living as a basis for wage claims.
§ Mr. BarberThe rise in the cost of living last year mainly reflects the fact that the increase in incomes between 1960 and 1961 was much too large. To attempt to give retrospective compensation by further excessive increases in incomes would only perpetuate the evil. The only sound basis for increases in the general level of incomes is the longer term trend of national productivity.