Mr John Wheatley: The right hon. Gentleman who has just addressed the House has only himself to blame if certain Members do not take his remarks too seriously. He devoted a considerable portion of his speech, as he usually does, to assuring us that rising subsidies and rising prices go together, and that if you want prices to fall you should abolish the subsidy. The right hon. Gentleman knows quite well that,...
Mr John Wheatley: Yes, in order to enable owners of houses to put up rents. That is what the right hon. Gentleman really means by amending. It does not mean that the Act should be amended to allow landlords to reduce rents. They do not require legislation to do that. Landlords are perfectly free in that respect. If the tenants were as free to reduce rents we should soon have wholesale reductions. The right...
Mr John Wheatley: Will the local authority be free to provide an inferior house?
Mr John Wheatley: My point was whether they would be empowered to provide a house inferior to the minimum standard in existence at present?
Mr John Wheatley: I beg to second the Amendment. As the Mover has pointed out, we have spent a considerable time discussing the problem of industrial rationalisation, but, as far as I know, this is the first Amendment which has raised the question of the proper treatment of the workers affected by that process. I read with considerable interest the other day, speeches delivered by hon. Friends of mine who sit...
Mr John Wheatley: The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) said, in his opening remarks, that he did not want to introduce the atmosphere of the crater, and I am sure that we were all interested to see how he would impress the House in his new capacity as a fire extinguisher. Speaking for myself, I have a sneaking preference for the old fiery leader over the gentleman to...
Mr John Wheatley: I thought that that was the most surprising part of the right hon. Gentleman's speech, and it was the most disappointing part, because he told us that trade was good, and he produced evidence. He told us about the multipie shops and the co-operative societies and these large concerns being in a state, if not of prosperity, certainly of being a long way from bankruptcy. What struck me was that...
Mr John Wheatley: I listened to the right hon. Gentleman's appeal to the Prime Minister to treat the House as a council of State, for so little had been produced in the way of constructive policy. If the right hon. Gentleman's speech is to be regarded as a sample of what we might expect from the initiation of a council of State in this House, there is not much encouragement for the new policy. I expected...
Mr John Wheatley: Well, if we are to conclude from that interjection that the national results of his policy would be no greater than the national results of what has taken place in that party, I do not think it is something that justifies the introduction of the system of a Council of State. But, seriously, I did expect that we were going to get something substantial from the right hon. Gentle-man, because he...
Mr John Wheatley: That is quite true, because whoever holds that theory would be bound to yield to the contrary view to some extent. Otherwise, we could not have harbours, we could not have docks. To say that because he would use that credit to the limited extent of constructing a harbour that, therefore, he holds to the view in the full sense of the policy laid down this afternoon by the right hon. Gentleman...
Mr John Wheatley: rose—
Mr John Wheatley: I am very sorry, indeed, if I have intruded upon the Committee in preference to the right hon. Member for Ogmore (Mr. Hartshorn), but it is not my intention to delay the Committee for more than a few minutes. Having to follow the right hon. Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) it may not be easy to keep my observations within the limits I had voluntarily imposed upon myself....
Mr John Wheatley: I hope we have not heard the last word from the Government in the speech delivered by the Secretary for Mines. The President of the Board of Trade, very properly adopting a conciliatory attitude, has met the members of the Liberal party and discussed with them the difficulties which stood in his way. I do not think it is asking too much that he should make a very serious effort to meet the...
Mr John Wheatley: I do not think that I used the word "consult." What I had in mind was that as you had gone so far to meet the Liberals you might have gone some way to meet your own supporters.
Mr John Wheatley: The point with which I was dealing when we temporarily suspended business was the question of rationalisation. I was pointing out that while rationalisation, like thrift, had its virtues, it did not follow that its virtues were beneficial to the problem of unemployment. I pointed out that the right hon. Gentleman when he cheers the fact that we have in this country, according to the...
Mr John Wheatley: Can the right hon. Gentleman quote one sentence of my speech in which I declared against the introduction of improved machinery or improved organization?
Mr John Wheatley: Will the right hon. Gentleman explain the drop of £35,000 last year?
Mr John Wheatley: I never mentioned Spain or Italy.
Mr John Wheatley: I would like at the outset to associate myself with a remark made by the hon. Member for West Middlesbrough (Mr. K. Griffith), and to say that anything that I have to say must not be regarded as in the nature of a personal attack on the Lord Privy Seal. We all recognise and appreciate the right hon. Gentleman's sincerity and energy, and, if these were the only qualities required to-day in a...
Mr John Wheatley: Then did the right hon. Gentleman explain to the railway company, as he did to the House, the wonderful advantages which would accrue from using material that we produce in this country compared with the use of material that we do not produce? Can he say he has been attending to that part of his jab? After he had convinced us that this was the right material to use, and had led the nation to...
