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Business of the House

The public have an opportunity to debate the Government’s performance every time that there is a general election. I am sorry to have to remind the hon. Gentleman that that debate took place earlier this year, when once again the public overwhelmingly concluded that the Government’s performance was rather better than the potential performance that was on offer from the Opposition. As the hon. Gentleman is usually an extremely fair-minded Member of this House, I find it astonishing, if he will forgive me for saying so, that he refers to unemployment. This country went through an horrendous period of unemployment under the last Conservative Government, yet today there is virtually full employment. I hope that he will revert to his more fair-minded approach in future. I might say the same about his comments on waiting list statistics. The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about the detailed information that local authorities require. I shall ensure that the attention of my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister is drawn to that so that it can be made available.