Manners Makyth Man
Sia,—In your comment last week on our recent party political broadcast, you observed that 'politics is a dirty game' and said that 'Mr. Crossman knew well enough that his broadcast was less than honest' Those of your readers who did not actually hear what I said are entitled to judge for themselves whether this charge is justified. Here is the verbatim text of the passage: Now our plans are ready. I'll tell you the most difficult thing was to decide who we should help with his mortgage instalments with the limited amount of money available, because one hears a lot about council-house tenants with Jaguar cars. Until recently, one heard a good deal less about owner-occupiers with a twenty-thousand-pound mortgage financed by local authorities. On a rough calculation I reckon that the tax relief the Kensington Con- servative gentleman got on his mortgage with the Kensington Borough Council was equal to a contribution of eight hundred and forty pounds a year from the Treasury into his pri- vate bank account. Now frankly. I don't think that mansion-occupiers of this kind should be going to the local authorities for a mortgage and I'm absolutely certain they're not in need of any further financial assistance from the Exchequer. And I'll tell them now—they're not the people who are going to get any help under our scheme. What I am determined to do is to make it possible for the very first time for people who at present are refused by building societies, people with average earnings, eighteen pounds a week, or below average, sixteen pounds, even fourteen pounds a week. these are the people we're going to help to buy their own houses.
It would be interesting to know what it is in these remarks which you find 'less than honest.'
[NIGEL LAWSON writes: `Mr. Crossman continued (although he now appears to have forgotten this) with the words, "And I intend to ensure that they are not excluded from the kind of assistance which the wealthy man with a bank account now receives." As a former expert in psychological warfare, the Minister of Housing well knows that those who heard his broadcast (and were obliged to rely on the spoken rather than the written word) received the impression that the Treasury was paying f840 a year "assistance" into my "private bank account" because I had been wicked enough to get a mort- gage from a local • authority. Alas, as my bank manager will readily testify, the Treasury pays nothing into my account; and the fact that I (in
ZOMmon with everyone else) am entitled to offset in- terest payments against income for tax purposes has nothing to do with my buying a house, still less with the fact that the money was lent by a local authority.'!
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