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Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review

I seem to remember that the levels of debt that we have today are rather better than those that existed when the right hon. and learned Gentleman was Chancellor of the Exchequer. In relation to spending, I think that he was complaining that we were not spending enough, yet I had always understood that his party's position was that we were spending too much. The amounts of money that we are spending on public services such as health and education are considerably more than was the case 10 years ago when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, as he well knows. In relation to the revision to the growth figures that I have given, I believe that it is sensible to do that because of what is happening internationally. The problems that started in the American housing market have clearly spread across the world. I made the point earlier that we need to take account of that, although, given the strength of the British economy, there is every reason to believe that we can get back on track with growth in the years after that—that view is shared not only by me but by independent commentators—because our economy is fundamentally strong, and it can deal with these difficulties. That is a rather different position from that of the Conservative party in the early 1990s.