Member

It is positive that any Government, now and previous, should come forward with such regulations. Warm homes are a mark of a civilised society and caring attitudes. These annual indications are surely to be welcomed. I was approaching the age of 10 in the fiercely cold winter of 1947. The majority of homes in those days had but one warm room. The coal fire was everything. In 1947, the late Manny Shinwell was Minister for Fuel and Power in the Attlee Government—there is a very combative bust of him but a stone’s throw from this Room. General Winter 1947 destroyed Manny’s political career. He just could not move the coal stocks from the railway sidings, so comprehensive was the ever-present Arctic cold and the ever-returning snow. It went on and on.