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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Budget resolution and I wish to pick up on some of the points that other hon. Members have raised, especially about education. First, however, I wish to comment on some of the broader aspects of the Budget. The first aspect is the proposed changes to income tax. As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell) correctly spotted—although the Leader of the Opposition did not—the 2p reduction in income tax is to be funded by the abolition of the 10p rate. That will have a detrimental effect on many poor people in my constituency and elsewhere. Other hon. Members have mentioned the fact that the tax credit is not universally taken up, and I know why, from many people in my surgeries. Many people on low incomes have unstable incomes that change rapidly—