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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point. I am simply trying to make the broad point that if a Government listen—as they should—there will sometimes be costs. The alternative was for the Government to proceed with an idea that many people, including me, had reservations about. They could have said, ““We don’t want to be caught doing a so-called U-turn.”” They could have taken the view that they did not want to have to say, ““We’re sorry that you had to spend hundreds of millions of pounds””—to use the hon. Gentleman’s figures—““trying to avoid tax. We are now changing the provision.”” So the question is: should the Government clam up and do absolutely nothing, or should they say, ““We’ve listened and perhaps we will make a change””? If the Government are not listening, what is the point of our being in this Chamber today? Not all my comments about the Government are positive. If we say, ““The Government never listen, so why have the debate?””, or, ““The Government listen, and when they do we are going to give them a kicking””, that is the end of public debate. It is monstrous.