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Pre-Budget Report 2007

My Lords, those figures are of course those of the noble Lord and not the Government. However, we clearly stressed to public sector workers that—as the noble Lord will recognise—there is a trade-off between the people employed in the public sector, the investment that we are able to make there, and the amount that we are able to pay public sector workers. His noble friend referred to that when, in glancing at the National Health Service budget, she grudgingly recognised the enormous advances that the Government have made. The noble Baroness probably did not cover the last decade because she was grudging about the reduction in its present position as opposed to that of previous years. Now, there is a fine analysis: a party that could not conceivably have matched the investment that we have made in the National Health Service regrets that we are reducing somewhat on the very substantial inputs that we have made over more than half a decade, and laments it while, at the same time, talking of bungled pay arrangements. I presume that what the noble Baroness meant is that some workers in the National Health Service got more than they actually deserved. The noble Lord is now berating me because he thinks that they are not getting enough. Well, such are the contradictions in some of the representations made this evening, but we are to expect that. One of the glories of the Opposition is that they can throw challenges or criticism at the Government without necessarily sustaining a narrative that itself stands up as coherent economic policy. In this debate we have been concerned to present what represents, in fact, a very strong position for the British economy. I do not accept the excessive degree of pessimism that is being expressed about the immediate future. However, I accept the warnings that are being issued that the international economic climate will not be as benign as it has been in the recent past. That is certainly so. But, as the noble Baroness asked herself when she made her contribution, the question is whether the economy is in a position strong and resilient enough to meet the challenges that lie ahead. If we look at all the international comparators, we can see that we are in a strong position. Does that mean that we can expect to have the same rates of growth next year and the year after that as we have enjoyed in recent years? No—that is why we have scaled down projected rates of growth. We have taken into account the fact that the international climate is more challenging. What we are sure of is that we can present to the European Community a management of the economy which shows how judicious and intelligent investment in public services, born of taxation that is well judged to encourage the enterprise part of the economy, has resulted in circumstances in which the Government can put their case with confidence. On Question, Motion agreed to.