Orders of the Day — Clause 1. — (Power to make regulations as to foodstuffs.)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 6 Hydref 1931.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr Andrew MacLaren Mr Andrew MacLaren , Stoke-on-Trent Burslem

There is not, but we are driven to tactics of this kind by a sudden crisis and by virtue of the fact that nothing was done to prepare the country for the crisis in which it finds itself. Surely I am not going to be entirely debarred from making a reflection on the man who is now Prime Minister of England and who now tells us that we must resort to measures of emergency and take immediate and drastic action. I am going to tell the Prime Minister that this Bill would not have been necessary if he had been more assiduous in his task, had appreciated the tendency in this country during the past two years and had prepared for the emergency that was inevitably coming. You will therefore excuse me, Mr. Speaker, if I am a little heated. I feel strongly because for two years I had to sit and watch while the Government, instead of preparing for these difficulties, did nothing. It, therefore, ill becomes the Prime Minister and the Government now to promote measures with which in their heart of hearts they do not agree. They are compelled by circumstances to promote schemes and Bills which a few weeks ago they would have denounced and laughed at with derision. We will see how this Bill operates. As an opponent of all this finicky, bureaucratic inspection of the individual, I shall take a pathological interest in it and see how it operates. If preparations had been made for the crisis, the Government, instead of resorting to measures of this kind, would have made opportunities in the country to give a chance to home supplies of food, and freed the country from the rise and fall of prices which depend on the exigencies of the moment.