Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
I sympathise with the hon. Gentleman's view and I wish I could agree with it, but I cannot. The cost of any attempt to have held prices of food would have been so vast that it would have meant enormous increases in taxation. Indeed, over the last year food prices have gone up by an extent that would have meant another £1,500 million in taxes to equate that rise. If the hon. Gentleman suggests that this would have held the situation and been more than a mere palliative, he is deceiving himself. The Government, under phase 3, provided for threshold arrangements which will be triggered off as and when the retail price index rises above 7 per cent. That should give considerable help to the workers concerned.