The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes :—Mr. Chamberlain's
Budget and his speech made an over- whelmingly favourable impression upon the House of Commons. In form, it was marked by frankness without frills. In substance it gave what most Members mainly desired, namely, priority of relief to the unemployed, and 6d. off the Income Tax. The Labour Party clearly thought it had damaged their political ease, which remains, as it has always been, essentially the setting of the " have-nots " against the " haves." Mr. Attlee in explaining that the. Budget was an " insult to the unemployed" sounded like thin bluff, and Mr. Morgan Jones was not much more solid on Wedliesday. Sir Herbert Samuel, on the other hand, stated admirably what criticisms there are to be made ; and his views will certainly be re-echoed outside his party. Many Members regret the use of the surplus of 1988-84 to repay ordinary debts, and would have preferred to see a substantial repayment of the debt of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Mr. Amery, for example, also voiced this view. Many others would have preferred relief to Income Tax allowances instead of the standard rate. But, on the whole, the Budget is politically impregnable. Its greatest asset is that it is at once the most generous and the most promising for many years ; and an invalid allowed a real drink after a long course of medicine is not likely to be too critical about the quality of his liquor.
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