100 years ago

Mr JG Butcher, member for York, would shortly second Mr Wing’s motion in favour of the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors in the House of Commons for the period of the war.

There was not the slightest doubt, said the London correspondent of the “Yorkshire Herald,” that, in some form or other, the motion would be carried. Mr Agg-Gardener had given notice of an amendment at tempting from the scope of the motion French and Colonial wines.

Within the past few days the general public had been invited to send a pledge to the Premier declaring in favour of the suspension of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors during the war, and promising hearty support to the Government in any measure it may introduce to Parliament, and also to give any evidence that would help the Cabinet in arriving at a decision.

 

50 years ago

In their review of consumer protection legislation the Government intended to extend the Merchandise Marks Act to cover goods and service, Mr George Darling, joint Minister of State, Board of Trade, said at the Cooperative Party conference.

“We shall make the oral misdescription by the shop assistant an offence. We shall see to it that advertisers will have to prove the validity of the claims they make for their products if challenged to do so.” Mr Darling, who was winding up a debate on consumer protection, said that in this field they were dealing with a minority of unscrupulous traders and dealers.

But with about £18,000m being spent on goods and services each year, if less than one per cent of the traders or manufacturers were unscrupulous, the sum involved could be in the neighbourhood of £100m. The government therefore had to take action against these unscrupulous traders.

 

25 years ago

Cubs and Scouts were looking for a bit more than a ‘bob a job’ for their toils as their annual Job Week got into full swing. And passers-by certainly seemed to take a shine to Oliver Kilmartin, stationed in Parliament Street, York, touting for business and holding up a sample of his workmanship for shoppers.

Shoes so clean you could see your face in them was the aim of Oliver and his friends from the 1st Huntington Apollo Cub Scout group as they set about raising funds. There was no fixed fee for the shoe shine, but the Cubs were expecting more than the ‘bob’, or 5p, traditionally requested!

Trade seemed quite brisk, and at the end of the week the Cubs would count up all their individual sheets and find out how much money they had raised.