A FIXED BUDGET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 June 1931, Page 6

A FIXED BUDGET

COMMITTEES ON ECONOMY Discussing the state of British public finance in an address at the Bonar Law College, Mr Geoffrey Drage said committees of the Cabinet on economy were failures. One sat for years under the late Government, and the total result of its deliberations was stated by an ex Chancellor of the Exchequer to he an economy of not more than £IO,OOO. Of Select Committees on national expenditure a member said in 1920, “They sat for two years and produced 15 reports, and not a single one of their recommendation!: has been carried out.” The only remedy was a“self-denying ordinance’ to he passed by the House of Commons on a precedent 300 years old, and the appointment of a. commission with executive powers independent of politics to take over the complete supervision of tho social services. The Chancellor of the Exchequer could say, with the advice of tho Treasury, what Hie country could afford, and the commission could see if any extra saving could be made. Every ono wished adequate relief to be given where families reallv needed it, hut at present the State was being plundered by and with the authority of Parliament. The State was not, as some people thought, the rich man, but the struggling doctor lawyer, parson, arclii fiwl. and small .shopkeeper round the corner, and the working man would eventually suffer with the rest.