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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

The hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson) spoke about ““cheat infidelity””, which would enable people to offset their cheating behaviour. We should do the same with something called ““cheat Budget””: one announcement is made to make it look as if everything will be okay, but the devil is in the detail, which shows that there will be an overall increase. I remember that after one Budget, The Daily Telegraph chose to examine the impact on four families, but two days later it had to come back and reassess the position. Its original assessment was based on what the Chancellor said, but when it looked at the detail of the Budget, the impact on all the families was worse. The Budget should be far more transparent. When the Chancellor announces something, he should say what the overall impact will be. We ought to know how much money the disappearance of the 10p rate, as well as the increased thresholds for national insurance, will raise.