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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I agree, but the Liberal Democrats are saying no. So what will the tax do if it will not discourage aircraft movement? They are trying to have it both ways. The law of unintended consequences may also apply to road user charging. Supporters of a per mile or per kilometre charge need to be careful about the psychology of some people—including me. If I paid by the mile, I might think that as I was doing my bit for green taxes I might as well drive a few more miles. The unintended consequence might be that people drive more miles. If the response from the Liberal Democrats would be to jack up the price, I am sure that that would be really popular with their rural constituents. The hon. Lady also talked about personal debt. I do not know how to say this without sounding patronising, but I was around in the early 1990s, when she was quite a lot younger. The present low interest rates and economic stability mean that the ability of people to service their debts is completely different now. One cannot simply say that the gross amount is similar and that we will therefore have a crash like we did in the early 1990s.