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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It is a bit like Stalin: they are cheering him on now—he will wipe them out later. Let me tell you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, what the Chancellor’s real problem is. It is not that he is a Stalinist who holds all his colleagues in contempt, although that probably does not help; it is that he has wasted money on an industrial scale. That is the truth. His great experiment in tax and spending has failed. He is an out-of-date politician wedded to state control, and the question that everybody is asking is: where has the money gone? This is the ““Where has the money gone?”” Budget. For 10 years, the Chancellor has been telling us that education is his priority—he did it again today—but 40 per cent. of primary school leavers cannot read properly. For 10 years, he has been telling us that he wants a competitive economy, but he has given us the biggest tax burden in our history. For 10 years, he has been talking about child poverty—he did it again today—but the number of people living in severe poverty is up by 400,000. UNICEF says that Britain is the worst place in the developed world to bring up children. For 10 years, the Chancellor has been telling us about the NHS. Today there was barely a mention. All that he has done is to reannounce this year’s money, which we already knew about. He has the figures for the future. Why will he not tell us about them? Does that not tell us everything that we need to know about the crisis in the NHS? The hole in the heart of this Budget is the failure to fix the NHS. The NHS was not the only thing that the Chancellor hardly mentioned. Let us look at what was in the Budget that did not get a mention in the speech; that is always an important list. Soon, the Chancellor and his allies will be going round the country saying that the spin, distortions and half-truths of the Blair era are coming to an end; some of them have started already—but actually, with the Chancellor spin will get worse. Let us look at today’s Budget. The Chancellor did not point out the savings ratio, which is hidden on page 255 of the Red Book; it has halved since he took office. Business investment as a share of gross domestic product, one of the keys to future growth, is on page 257 of the Red Book; again, it is below 10 per cent. and going backwards. What about page 260 of the Red Book, which says that"““the overall trade deficit is up””?" Again, there was not a mention of that from the Chancellor. The Chancellor talked about research and development tax credits, but he did not tell us that since they were introduced, R and D has actually fallen. He barely mentioned the Lyons report on local government. He normally trumpets these reports and tells us how proud he is, but today there was not even a mention. Make no mistake—the measures in the Lyons report will hit every family in the country. The Chancellor did not mention retail price inflation, either, which is now at 4.6 per cent.—almost double what he inherited. All those things are in the Budget; none of them were in the speech. [Interruption.] I know that the Chancellor and the Prime Minister are having their annual conversation, but I do not know why he bothers talking to the Prime Minister; he is not ““bovvered”” any more. A fortnight ago, the Prime Minister said that the arts were a ““core”” part of the script. They were not even in the Chancellor’s script. The Chancellor boasted about foreign direct investment, but he did not tell us that the Red Book shows that half of last year’s foreign direct investment was accounted for by the restructuring of one company—Shell. That did not get a mention. In spite of all the extra taxes, let us look at the borrowing figures. The Chancellor listed them through gritted teeth. They might have been whitened, straightened and privately polished—[Interruption.] He has spent all that money on his smile, but he will not even give us one. He is not going to win over Kylie like that. Let me read back the five-year plan—I mean, the Budget. This year, the Chancellor will borrow £35 billion, then £34 billion, then £30 billion, then £28 billion, and then £26 billion. That is a total of £153 billion by 2011, which is £8 billion more than he told us about just three months ago. This is the Chancellor who has built up a pile of debt. Again, where has all the money gone? We have had a bonanza on spending on the NHS, but nurses are being sacked. He brags about people’s long-term security, but the pension system is shot to pieces. He boasts about spending on young people, but the number not in education, employment or training is up by a third. So he has not just borrowed billions; he has wasted billions. What a wasted opportunity—billions taxed, billions borrowed, billions wasted. [Interruption.] The Chancellor has run out of money, so let us look at the big tasks, the big things that he said—[Interruption.]