§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Employment if, in his studies directed to relieving unemployment, he will carry out studies of the situation in Norway and Austria to identify the reasons why unemployment in those countries between 1972 and the present has risen much less than the United Kingdom and other European nations, particularly those in the European Economic Community.
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§ Mr. Peter MorrisonMy Department already takes note of how other countries deal with their unemployment problems. There are many and varied reasons why some countries do better than others, and Austria and Norway differ from us in many more significant ways than membership of the EC. The immediate lesson from any comparison with other countries is our need to develop trade links by improving competitiveness, containing public spending and reducing our rate of inflation.