The Parliamentary Scene Our Parliamentary corresigindent writes : The most
bitterly controversial question that will face the House • of Commons after the Whitsuntide recess will be the new unemployment regulations. Mr. Winston Churchill has already indicated that he is opposed to the eontinu- ance of the Faultily Means Test. It will he the first time since the National Government was formed that Mr. Churchill has led an attack from the Left, and it may well be that he will rally substantial support among the Government supporters who sit for distressed -areas. It was probably in anticipation of an aline!: of this kind that Mr. Ernest Brown devoted the major portion of his speech on the adjournment motion to an examination of the case for the family means test. He gave one effective instance of its necessity—a household of four brothers, three of them bringing home earnings of £12 16s. M. and one of them drawing 17s. from the Unemployment Assistance Board. "Are honourable members going to tell me—Mr. Brown asked—that in a household where those brothers are earning £12 les. Id. the taxpayers of the country, including men with no resources in the same street, should be asked, out of the general taxes, to maintain that man when the resources of his home are £12 16s. hi. ? "
Previous page
