Hon. Members on all sides will agree that it is a sad thing that private Members' time should be lost, but surely the present position is exceptional.

After listening to the speech of the right hon. Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Gaitskell) earlier today, I thought that a debate on this issue would scarcely be necessary. So intoxicated was he with the exuberance of his own apparent economic virtuosity that he wanted an Election right away with nothing to stand in the way of it. Indeed, the dessicated calculating machine seemed to have new life. Like one of those fairy stories from Grimm or Hans Andersen, suddenly the machine became alive, and the right hon. Gentleman received rousing if not rip-roaring support from his own side of the Committee before his economic fallacies were fully exposed by my right hon. and hon. Friends during the debate.

The issue here is comparatively simple. As the right hon. Member for Leeds, South clearly said, what the nation needs is an Election—