The Week in Parliament • Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes :
The censure motion on unemployment emphasised the tragic fact that the Government, in spite of its success in reducing unemployment, has as yet no remedy for the " special areas." The debate opened hopefully when it appeared that Mr. Baldwin, in answer to the usual knock-about party attack by Mr. Greenwood, was determined to resist all temptation to meet gibe with gibe. He began by insisting that in spite of the very satisfactory reduction of the total of the workless to a figure lower by 308,000 than " at the time of the last vote of censure," there was no cause for complacency. A packed House then settled down to await the production of a constructive policy, but none was forthcoming. The speech was, as always, sincere and dignified, but it might have been delivered from a brief supplied by the Central Conservative Office to a back-bench member anxious to justify the record of the Government to the annual meeting of his association. Beyond an appeal to employers to build new factories' in the areas where they are most socially needed and a promise of the publication of the report of the Commis- sioners who, it is well known, have discovered no real remedy, there was nothing in the speech that could bring any hope to those imprisoned in these devastated regions. It was not surprising that when Mr. Baldwin sat down there was silence.
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