5S 4 1/2D

[RichardB]

1935

Indeed, when I have visited my own old town of Sheffield and addressed my old comrades, I have been astonished at the deterioration which I have seen in some of the men with whom I used to work. I make this challenge: Is there an hon. Member in this House who can keep a household going on the amount of money which the wife of the ordinary unemployed man has to spend? Is there one in this House who could keep a household going on the amount of money that is laid down by the British Medical Association in their scale?We heard a great deal during 1935 about 3,000 calories being necessary in 24 hours, and what that ought to cost, and when we are told that an ordinary human being can be kept in health for a week on 5s. 4½d., it is just playing with the question. Indeed, 5s. 4½d. is just about the amount of money that the average Member of this House spends on one dinner, and you cannot go out into your clubs and hotels in the West End of London and get a decent dinner, including tips, for 5s. 4½d. Yet you expect an individual to live for seven days a week on that amount of money. I remember, in the days when I was a guardian in Sheffield, sitting with a well-respected steel magnate, who said to me, "Look sharp, I have a directors' meeting to attend. What about giving the old man 6s. a week to live on?" I said, "Hold on a bit. Will you be having lunch before you go to your directors' meeting?" He replied, "Yes." I asked, "How much will it cost you?" He said, "I shall be lucky if I get outside the Victoria Hotel for 10s." I said, "Yet you want this old man to live for seven days on 6s." He said, "I have never seen it in that light before," and, in fairness to him, I should say that from that time onwards he began to alter attitude towards people applying for Poor Law relief. There is not an hon. Member in this House who could manage to keep a home going on what we expect our unemployed to subsist on.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1936-07-08a.1229.10