from Alec Acheson
During the July 6th debate in the House of Commons on Monopolies, Mergers and Restrictive Practices, Douglas Jay, in moving a critical amendment stated: "In 1959 the Conservative Central Office issued a list of 500 firms which they professed to fear would be taken into public ownership by a Labour Government. In. the years since, 112 of the 500 firms had vanished in private takeover bids - and there had not been a single squeak of protest from ministerial backbenchers..ee..Conservatives would rather see British industry taken over by foreign private owners than by the British public." Barbara Castle instanced the monopoly use of advertising and how Unilever soaps sold at 1/9d and 1/44d a tablet yet Which gave Boots! unwrapped tablets at 10d as the best buy, but the cost of production of these soaps was about 2d, Barbara Castle gave this tailpiece to my last week's titbit on Philip S. Walker - "She noticed that one of the members of the Monopolies Commission was Mr, P.S. Walker, the gentleman who had received a ‘golden hand-= shake' of £124,000 from the Reed Paper Group. Were these the people who were going to destroy the monopolies? The House would be gullible if it believed that."