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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

The hon. Gentleman is always changing the cycle and the base in order to churn out statistics that suit him. We take a broader and more honest view of the figures. The Chancellor talks a lot about skills. In his Budget, as if it were some communist five-year plan for tractor production, he said of the UK:"““By 2020, it will need 14 million highly skilled workers. And of 3.4 million unskilled jobs today, we will need only 600,000 by 2020.””—[Official Report, 22 March 2006; Vol. 444, c. 292.]" The extraordinary certainty with which he asserts those figures is distressing enough, but not all parts of Government share in his enthusiasm for science-based skills. It was staggering to be given a letter that an Ofsted inspector wrote to the children of a primary school in my constituency after an Ofsted inspection—a practice that I do not think is appropriate, particularly when it includes the sentence:"““we think that you ought to spend more time on subjects other than English, mathematics and science.””" [Interruption.] I will repeat it for the hon. Member for Doncaster, North (Edward Miliband), if he really thinks that he approves of such a letter. An Ofsted inspector has written to primary school children suggesting that they ought to spend less time on mathematics, science and English. How are we going to reach the required standards in our primary schools if that is the attitude of Ofsted inspectors? Let me take an article by Sir John Rose from the Chancellor’s newly appointed business advisory council, who says:"““The key to competitiveness and productivity is a strong educational base that can create a well-educated workforce.””" No one can disagree with that. He goes on:"““In our schools, some of the key, science-based subjects are in decline. The number of sixth-formers taking A-level physics, for example, has fallen 30 per cent. over the past 15 years. More generally, there has been a decline in science and maths as a proportion of A-level passes.""At university level our students are increasingly failing to find engineering-based subjects attractive—the number of electronic and electrical-engineering students has fallen by more that 30 per cent. in the past two years alone. More than half of all engineering doctorates awarded in Britain are gained by overseas students.””" At least that is an example of what may be good advice heading in the direction of the Chancellor. As if the skills problem were not bad enough on its own, we have the added burden of regulations. Every single year, the EU alone issues 100 to 150 directives and 3,500 regulations.