The lamentable result of this principle, he might say of general exemption, was, that the recruiting service, whether for the army, or even tor the militia, was completely cut up both root and branch; and all the vigour and activity of the country were protected and locked up, as it were, from the defence of the empire, at the most momentous Crisis in Which It.
It was impossible not to feel excited on such a subject, and he hoped that those who really have property, and who have interests at stake in the country, will stand by the Government in the Crisis in Which It is placed.
I do not want to supply those people who are bombarding the best Government that India ever had with additional ammunition, and I think the refusal of this House to entertain the question as to whether we will, or will not, come forward to help India in a Crisis in Which It is clear beyond all doubt she will have to borrow and add to her debt.
My Liberal colleague and I fought the election quite separately, never once did either of us appear on the other's platform, but both of us fought in the interests of a National Government, both of us fought word by word for the manifesto of the Prime Minister, a free hand to use every means to bring this country out of the great financial Crisis in Which It is at present.
If the world is to 1216 come out of the Crisis in Which It is today, it must be by means of a new basis for industry and a new basis for the relationship of men and women to industry.
I have been waiting for many hours to hear someone make an attack upon the Government and Government policy in its relation to the textile trade in the Crisis in Which It now finds itself.
Taxation would have to be reduced by another £3,064 million, on a comparable basis, to return to the 1964–65 level, but he does not propose to return this country to the state of economic Crisis in Which It was left by the previous Government.
This short debate is a fitting epitaph to the day that we have spent debating the economy, because a constant theme through that debate has been that the country has not yet fully recognised the depth of the Crisis in Which It finds itself.
Given the problems confronting Rotherham, which the Secretary of State and many of his colleagues have witnessed over the past five or six years, does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that reducing Rotherham's capacity to work its way out of the Crisis in Which It has been placed by the Government will put it in an impossible position and one which will be seen as preposterous, unfair and, malicious by virtually every reasonable and intelligent citizen of our borough?
The leadership of the county council responded to the Crisis in Which It was placed by proposing earlier this year to close 10 first schools, six of them - Hipsburn, Acklington, Linton, Milfield, Horncliffe and Thropton - in my constituency.
We need a plan for Europe, not just a Marshall plan for the region, because people will keep trying to reach our shores, whatever we do - a plan that involves proper UNHCR-run assessment centres in the region before people try to make a dangerous journey, and EU funding for the UN to do the job; a plan that funds assessment centres in Europe in the places people are most likely to arrive, so that they do not start to travel in dangerous convoys across our continent; a swift system to respond to those economic migrants, perhaps from the Balkans, who need to return and to follow normal immigration rules; a plan to help the refugees get the help and support they need; a plan that takes on the vile criminal gangs; a plan in which European countries work together, rather than making life harder for each other; a plan by which the French authorities and the UN can do full assessments of those at Calais to determine how many are refugees and how many need support; a plan in which Europe stands strong in the face of the Crisis in Which It is being tested, rather than falls apart.