UNEMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28821, 16 February 1959, Page 17

UNEMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN

Effect On Date Of Election Unemployment in Britain, now running at about 2.8 per - cent, was not alarmingly high, but it could play a big part in deciding the " next- General Election, said Lord Glehconner in an interview in Christchurch. - - , • J

He is chairman of directors of the National Mortgage' and Agency Company of New Zealand, Ltd., and is here to gain first-hand impressions of the state of the Dominion’s farming industry. He was last here in 1952. Unemployment could play a major part in British politics in the coming months because it was, in part, confined to pockets. Insofar as those pockets were in marginal electorates they were of considerable importance to the Government, which would some time this year have to decide when to go to the country. “I am hoping that by the time the Government does call a General Election this problem will have been largely solved," he said.

Mr Macmillan would have to go to the country before March next year, and on present indications t was likely that the date would be set in October or November’ of this year. It should not be too long before Britain began to recover from the present recession, said Lord Glenconner. “We have found that .it is almost impossible to prevent recessions, but we have learnt how to mitigate the troughs. . “In the United States, in the last 18 months, they have been very'successful in combating their recession, and we shill surely follow suit.”