I foresee a very great Crisis in Employment in agriculture in the next two years.

If there were no power of the Federal Government to restrict such an immigration there might be an Employment Crisis of the first order, a move to restrict wages, and so on.

Until now, that has been largely true in most new towns, but we must remember that the unique age structure of the populations of all our new towns makes it inevitable that there will be an acute Crisis in Employment as the years go on.

If there were a serious Crisis of Employment in Falmouth, I and my right hon. and hon. Friends in other Departments would, of course, immediately consider what the Government could do to help.

This is a period of Crisis in Employment, and it would seem that public expenditure on public works is urgently called for.

The reason I refer to this background is partly because the credibility of the Government in implementing a policy in which their principal spokesman manifestly does not believe must certainly be in doubt; secondly, it is because it would be wrong, looking at the major Crisis in Employment - to which I want to come shortly - to leave out of account the damage done to business confidence by the right hon. Gentleman's discharge of his stewardship over the last two years, when he went out of his way - I believe that this is the real explanation for the Rolls-Royce collapse as well - to try to persuade British industry that if it got into difficulties there would be no Government support of any kind for it.

Certainly if I was asked to pick the overwhelmingly most important issue which in the end will not only affect the developing countries politically but will also affect us politically, I would say that it is the Employment Crisis in those countries, the fact that in the developing world as a whole there are unemployment rates in urban areas exceeding 30 per cent.

What we have to ask ourselves is how far the form of aid relationships, the form of economic relationships between the Community and ourselves and the developing countries are designed to tackle effectively This Employment Crisis which, as my right hon. Friend so correctly emphasised, is predominantly present within Asia with which we traditionally have important links?

If we take on board the real seriousness of the Massive Employment Crisis of the third world, probably the most important political issue in the world as a whole, with which we are all confronted, we cannot escape it by that sort of analysis.

Since our debate last December, it has become more widely known that London faces an Employment Crisis, not in the sense of the unemployment which is a feature of the development areas but in the imbalance of employment.

Then there is the Welsh Development Agency, which is also to spend millions of pounds, and which, by the Secretary of State's own admission in the Welsh Grand Committee, is unlikely to be directly helpful in the Present Employment Crisis.

However, there are two other bodies that have to meet the challenge of this Crisis of Employment.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is a potential difficulty for councils facing a situation in which they must embark on large capital expenditure in order to meet an Employment Crisis, such as that in northeast Wales, but find that the new proposals seriously limit their freedom of manoeuvre?

We now face not just an Employment Crisis - an employment crisis of a sickening magnitude - but a survival crisis.

Since the Government were prepared to do a U-turn yesterday in accordance with the wishes of the House will he try to achieve a U-turn in the Government's economic and financial policies which will, unless changed, lead to a serious Crisis in Employment in the years ahead?

The whole country is going through a Crisis in Employment, caused by a world recession.

Why is it that the ordnance factories face the most Serious Employment Crisis since the war?

Points have been made about the inner city partnership and about the Government's attempts to overcome the Employment Crisis on Merseyside and Liverpool.

Britain was on its own at the Luxembourg summit a month or two ago when considering how to respond to the Employment Crisis and the job creation proposals.

I have had cause sometimes to criticise trade unions, as we all have on occasions, but it is cheek and brass-necked impudence for anyone to complain, in view of the Crisis of Employment in the West of Scotland, that trade unions are trying to preserve jobs and the capacity of the local authorities to do good and provide a service for the people they represent.

The textile industry no longer employs the numbers of people it did, and Calderdale is faced with an Employment Crisis.

151) TUESDAY 24 JANUARY - Opposition day (6th Allotted Day): Until about seven o'clock there will be a debate on the Employment Crisis on the lower Clyde and the future of the Scott Lithgow yard.

Even given the paucity of his figures, I hope that the Minister will admit that the reduction that they show proves that there is still a real Crisis in Employment in Wales.

The Government could respond through their single regeneration budget and I ask them to say now what they are going to do to solve the Employment Crisis that rail privatisation has created in York.

It is important to put the debate into the context of the Employment Crisis, but that must be set against the background facing the rural economy year on year.

Astonishingly, we have 800,000 hectares of set-aside land that could be used - and, indeed, was used for agricultural purposes - while we have a Crisis in Employment in rural communities and their sustainability.

The area therefore has something of an Employment Crisis.

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Prosser has given us a highly opportune moment for debating this issue, as Employment Crisis is a pretty fair description.

We have a Crisis of Employment - a crisis of youth unemployment, with 1 million in the UK and one in four in Scotland now unemployed.

The Prime Minister's complacency about the Employment Crisis shows an unrealistic approach to the stagnation we are witnessing in Coventry, where 4.