The former ports policy was subjected to a Crisis in the 1970s, when the former hon. Member for Yeovil, Mr. Peyton, did exactly the same thing, and rapidly made a U-turn.

The reality has to be faced by the Government and by the industry, just as the previous Labour Government faced the beginning of this Crisis in the 1970s when, as has already been mentioned, it oversaw the loss of 20,000 jobs in the industry.

The unions looked forward to a future in which the economic Crisis of the 1970s had passed and they could return to their preferred system of free collective bargaining.

Concern about oil prices is deeply rooted in the Crisis of the 1970s, when we learnt, to our cost, of the far-reaching economic and political consequences that an oil price shock could entail.