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Rationing And Points System

Volume 437: debated on Thursday 22 May 1947

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49.

asked the Prime Minister whether he will appoint an interdepartmental committee to review the rationing schemes now in force and to recommend what changes can be made to apply the points system more generally throughout the rationing structure and to introduce flexibility as between one rationed commodity and another.

No, Sir. I think that such a system would be undesirable and impracticable.

Does the Prime Minister realise that the black market of this country is growing, that it tends to· bring a whole range of law into contempt, and that the only way to overcome the black market, apart from the totalitarian way, is to modify the rationing structure to render legal what is now illegal?

The hon. Member's proposal, as I understand it, is that the points system should apply to everything—petrol, clothing and every form of food—but that is quite an impossible proposition.