Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.
It seemed that I learned more in those three hours than the hon. and learned Member has learned in his whole time there. I must see him later and tell him something about what I found. I did not find there much enthusiasm for the new town or for his proposals.
I thought that the Secretary of State in his speech was coming much nearer to the realities of the matter with his talk about advance factories and the continuation of the policy of trying to bring new industry to those areas and trying to develop some of the townships which are there already. I put out the suggestion when I was there that possibly the establishment of a trading estate rather similar to those we have attempted—successfully attempted—in South Wales might well be of more benefit. But if we are to build advance factories I must concede that it will be necessary to build advance houses also because many of the workers, if anything of any size is established, will have to come from over the border into Wales.
I seriously ask the right hon. Gentleman to consider carefully whether it would not be better to try to build on existing centres of communication, to use existing townships, with their spirit, their culture, their facilities and their skills in local government and otherwise, to try to build upon those rather than to try to establish something vast and new in some great area of the countryside. If he pursues the matter on those lines, bringing in industry to where people live and building up the centres of population and the population itself, by a steady but not too dramatic influx of new workers, there will be something which will be at any rate a solution of the Welsh problem rather than a mere overspill from Birmingham, which many other solutions appear to be. An approach on these lines would be far more consistent with the real spirit of Mid-Wales than some of the wilder suggestions which have been put forward.
The right hon. Gentleman set me a good example by not speaking for too long and I shall now come to a conclusion. It has been an honour to me to contribute to this debate, which I hope I have done in a not too controversial manner—at least not too controversial a manner for me. A little sharpening of the edges of debate is healthy, because in this way we emerge towards the truth of these events. I have posed some questions which I hope the Minister of State will seek to answer. In essence we go along with this Motion. This Motion pays tribute to the great heritage which this Government took over of a country with massive development going on, with new development planned ahead, being opened up to the South-West and to the Midlands. All this is there. There are great prizes to be won and our concern is that the Government will keep it going in every way. I do not quarrel with the right hon. Gentleman—I believe that his heart is in the right place—but I have the gravest doubts about most of his colleagues.