M.P. warns of ‘further slice of Socialism’

Editorial summary; direct quotes from MT given in full:MT spoke to the monthly meeting of the Greyfriars Luncheon Club of Coventry South Conservative Association at the Hotel Leofric yesterday, saying the key issue of the General Election would be “whether or not we are to have a further large slice of Socialism, more State control over the lives of men and women.”

“We are having an election because Mr. Wilson realises that he is at the absolute end of the period when he can blame us for the things he has done wrong; from now on he is on his own.

“The fact that we still have an economic crisis shows that his measures have not succeeded. The situation now is virtually the same as when he took office.

“What may well happen is what happened after the last period of Labour government; they borrow the money, the Conservatives have to make it and repay it.”

Overseas Investments

MT said Labour would fight the election on what they called “their inheritance” —, which had been a prosperous one, with a rising standard of living the like of which the nation had never had before.

“We got rid of the controls and debts they left, and built up reserves to £11,000 million in overseas investments.” She noted also the housing, hospitals and roads programmes that Mr. Wilson “inherited.”

Foreseeing the nationalisation of steel if Labour returned to office, MT warned that nationalisation was only one method of achieving a particular end—an all-powerful Government over the lives and jobs of individuals.

Other methods included buying shares in large companies, and by the proposed Land Commission, which would increase the price of land and lead to property owners being taxed for building extensions on their own land, since it would have the power to take over land which had already received planning permission.