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Cotton Textile Industry 29 NOVEMBER 1971 Cotton Textile Industry [MR. GRANT.]
in indicating that the Government share the concern of hon. Members about un- employment, and I have given the assur- ances which I hope will be acceptable in this respect.
12.10 a.m.
Mr. John Roper (Farnworth): We are disappointed at the lack of information from the Minister this evening. We were hoping to hear him outline something of a strategy to deal with the serious prob- lems of this industry, bearing in mind that the Textile Council has said that the textile cycle is worse than it has been in the past. We wanted to hear about some interim plan to deal with the problems in the industry during the period before the possible benefits of entry into the E.E.C. can accrue. We heard nothing from the Minister about what this country's textile policy within the Community will be, or about how our policy might or might not be harmonised with that of the Community. what we hoped to hear about, but we did not.
That is
The Minister spoke about unemploy- ment not having risen. If he were to look more carefully at the figures, he would realise that there are many women operatives in the Lancashire textile indus- try who have become unemployed during the last few months, but as they pay
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only the lower rate stamp, they do not register as unemployed. The figures quoted by the hon. Gentleman are there- fore totally meaningless, and show the complacency of the Government and their failure to deal with-
Mr. Anthony Grant: The hon. Gentle- man must not misquote me. In no way did I indicate complacency. My words were chosen carefully when I said that it was important to keep the matter in per- spective. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will appreciate that the mere fact that during a half-hour Adjournment debate I have not announced an entirely new policy does not mean that the Govern- ment are not looking at this matter with great concern.
Mr. Roper: Complacent words can be chosen carefully. We had hoped for more useful words, but we did not get them.
The House will no doubt have other opportunities to return to this subject, and when we do we shall press the Gov- ernment for a policy to help the Lanca- shire cotton industry, which has suffered far too much in recent years from inade- quate attention from Governments.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly minutes past Twelve o'clock.
at twelve
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