MR. MACMILLAN AND THE MYTH
THE Chancellor did well in his speech at Manchester last week to try to put the economic scene into a better perspec' tive. It was a good idea, too, to do this by reminding his audience of some easily appreciated facts. Since the beginning of 1953, he said, one and a half million new cars and half a million new motor-cycles have been registered; shops have sold half a million new refrigerators and a million new washing machines. We are at the same time eating, drinking and smoking more, and spending more on clothes than three years ago. Further, since 1952 well over a million new houses and flats have been built. His claim that `the nation as a whole has really had a very big improvement in its daily living' is surely incontestable. But why did he go on to blame the press for the `myth' that the standard of living was `taking a knock,' and to add that the country had nothing to fear except the newspaper propagandists and other pessimists? The `myth' comes largely from his political opponents, who now seem to have lost all touch with what is going on in the country. The Chancellor was bitterly attacked in the House when he announced cuts in Government spending of £17 million. In particular Labour speakers exploded with anger about the extra charge on health prescriptions, which will take just £5 million a year out of people's pockets. But on the same day a wage claim costing £100 million was put forward by the engineers, who form only about 14 per cent. of the country's working population. The Chancellor, having taken his campaign for putting things into Perspective up to Manchester and Glasgow, should now go into the attack at Westminster.
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