Mr John Jones: I interrupted earlier to ask why it was that the White Paper did not refer to public and private investment in the steel industry and the hon. Gentleman categorically said that the Chancellor of the Exchequer referred to that matter yesterday. There are 22½ columns of their speeches in HANSARD, but neither the Chancellor nor the Minister of Power mentioned the word "steel". Was that a...
Mr John Jones: Or improve the quality.
Mr John Jones: I want to be clear about this and these trade associations. Does the hon. Gentleman include the trade unions, or the trade unions along with management, and all the people engaged in industry?
Mr John Jones: We have heard some interesting speeches today. The contribution by the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr. Shepherd) is one of the most interesting that we have heard for a long time, coming from one of the younger Tories. We had from him a complete denunciation of Government policy relating to the increase in taxation, hire-purchase restrictions, and so on, which make life much more difficult,...
Mr John Jones: Would the hon. Gentleman agree that where a company finds that, due to propitious and advantageous circumstances in any one year, it is able to pay a higher dividend than it expected, it would be as well to explain to the workers how much was to be ploughed back? That would be a tremendous advantage, but it is not being done throughout 90 per cent. of industry.
Mr John Jones: It was pointed out that the figures for Italy—the Wogs, as we call them—showed an increase of 27 per cent. We could do better.
Mr John Jones: Shipbuilding?
Mr John Jones: They go there in full health and come back possibly with impaired health.
Mr John Jones: I had hoped that we should have had longer time for this so that a large number of hon. Members could have aired their views and we would not have been confined to debating the question of pollution of beaches. As the hon. Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North (Mr. R. W. Elliott) rightly said, these matters cannot be fully discussed without discussing how the material gets to the beaches....
Mr John Jones: The Chinese are good farmers. Confucius said that if one wanted to be happy for a month one should smoke a pipe; if one wanted to be happy for a year one should marry a wife. But if one wanted to be happy for life one should get a load of muck and cultivate one's garden. The Chinese have more people to feed with less at their disposal to do it with and they put their waste to use. China has...
Mr John Jones: It is also good for brassica. If we can get more sprouts on the stalk the housewives will get the benefit, because the prices will come down. Why should they not have that benefit?
Mr John Jones: The Parliamentary Secretary is saying that the scheme would be satisfactory if it were a completely new scheme. What the authority must do is to scrap the old scheme, however much value it may still have, and go ahead with a new scheme which will cost much more. The authority can have a new scheme, but it cannot improve the old one.
Mr John Jones: But you cannot have the "brass".
Mr John Jones: Surely, it can be taken out to floating lagoons and then either taken further out, or brought back to be processed. The problem is not insuperable.
Mr John Jones: It has been done. Birmingham does it. Bolton does it, and so does Warrington.
Mr John Jones: The Minister says that the farmers will not buy the compost. Then let every visitor to the seaside, as a quid pro quo, take a couple of bags of the fertiliser back with him as a present.
Mr John Jones: I had not the slightest intention of intervening in the debate. It is not usual for me to talk about finance and budgetary matters, but when I heard the feeble defence put forward by the Economic Secretary it prompted me to tell him a few home-truths. I am a non-smoker. I have never touched a cigarette in my life, nor do I intend to do so as long as I live. As I do not smoke, I do not have a...
Mr John Jones: That is simple; it is too prosperous.
Mr John Jones: rose—
Mr John Jones: Wrong again.
