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Finance (No. 2) Bill

My Lords, I was surprised and delighted with how brief the noble Baroness was in her opening remarks. She obviously could not find enough to criticise the Government for. I shall leave that aside. Normally I can rely on her being very critical of everything to do with Finance Bills and the economy. I look forward to hearing some constructive proposals about how she would amend the Bill. I recognise that everything is not always brilliant in our economy, but at the moment it is difficult not to accept that in the past nearly 10 years we have had economic growth, which is unusual. I do not want to quote the Minister but he will tell us how great it all is. I have a problem with inflation. We know that the Opposition initially opposed the setting up of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. I am sure that noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, did not do so because he is too intelligent to oppose such a sensible proposition. I am sorry he was not in his place a few moments ago because I referred to something he said. We have a very low rate of inflation—around 2 per cent—and the Governor of the Bank of England has forecast, as has the Monetary Policy Committee, that it will stay broadly at that level for the next two years. Despite that, the Governor is constantly speaking around the country about the serious dangers of inflation. Frankly, if he has to increase interest rates by a couple of quarter per cents over the next few years to keep inflation at the figure that he has forecast of around 2 per cent, would that be disastrous? I am beginning to worry that the Governor of the Bank of England does not have enough to do. If he is going around the country spreading gloom about the rate of inflation when it is only around 2 per cent, and he forecasts that it will stay there for two years, I wonder what on earth he is talking about. I could have understood it coming from the noble Baroness, but not from the Governor of the Bank of England. Perhaps I could suggest to the noble Lord, Lord Wakeham, that the Economic Affairs Select Committee could call the Governor before it to ask a simple question: what on earth is he on about? I am obliged to my noble friend for pointing out that I have spoken for too long, but I shall take another minute or two. The golden rule has been raised again. The Economic Affairs Select Committee, under the chairmanship of the predecessor of the noble Lord, Lord Wakeham, said that it was a better system than any other that has been devised in the European Union. For my part, if it is slightly overreached, it would not be a terrible disaster. Other than that, I leave the defence of the Finance Bill and the economy to my noble friend who I know will manage very well.