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Address in Reply to Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech

My Lords, I shall continue with my remarks. I had hoped to resign from my ministerial job before that Bill came to the House of Lords. The thought of a Bill with 600 clauses in which my noble friend Lord Wedderburn was taking an interest seemed to me to be something to be avoided. Now that that happy thought has been taken away, I look forward to debating the Bill with my noble friend as we may not agree on all parts of it. My noble friend Lord McKenzie emphasised the success of the Government's macro-economic strategies. Although we are enjoying sustained economic growth, we cannot ignore the growing challenges of international competition. The gracious Speech reflects this Government's determination to build a high-skilled, knowledge-intensive economy, an economy in which everyone has the opportunity to contribute to wealth creation and to benefit from it. The Government have a clear vision of the economy that we want to build and how this country can compete against the challenges of the emerging economies such as China and India. In the year ahead we shall build on the successes that we have had.