Entangled in Cheese
The House of Commons seems to have been so amused at its own antics on Monday night, when an Opposition prayer to annul an order reducing the weekly cheese ration from 3 oz. to 2 oz.,, was carried by 237 votes to the Government's 219, that it failed to see the appalling tangle in which it was involved. Formally all that has happened is that the Government has been instructed to keep the ration at 3 oz. But Mr. Morrison has undertaken to obey that instruction and Mr. Webb insists on disobeying it. It seems at present that Mr. Webb is going to have his way. Yet he ought not to be allowed to escape so easily. If be were forced to try to obtain more cheese he would no doubt find that very difficult. He would find that the prices are high. But he would also find that one factor forcing up those prices has been his own failure to provide a deceit meat ration. He would be faced with the fact that either the consumer must pay the price in the shops or the Government must increase food subsidies, a self-imposed dilemma to which it clings like a professional contortionist to his straitjacket. He would be caught up in complicated arguments about protein intake, and would be unable to escape the fact that the cheese ration was put up lait December to compensate for a reduction of the meat ration to Cs. and is now to be reduced although the meat ration has since fallen to 10d. He would annoy housewives, enrage a nation of meat-eaters by telling it that it is better off than before the war, make a fool of himself and lose votes. And it would serve him right.
Previous page
