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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

It is a pleasure to follow my fellow member of the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh, East (Dr. Strang). I acknowledge his commitment to environmental issues and welcome his remarks on that subject. Before proceeding, I remind the House of my entry in the Register of Members’ Interests. The first thing that one does when one listens to a Budget speech is to judge whether the overall impression is going to impress, depress or whatever. It is usually said that if there are great cheers, particularly from the Government Benches, the next day people will adjudge that the speech was not really quite as good as they thought—a bit like a Chinese meal that will be quickly forgotten. The deadly silence with which most of the Chancellor’s remarks were received on the Labour Benches makes me tremble a little bit and think that perhaps there is something more inside this Budget that I did not spot. A silent Budget is usually one of those that has a longer- lasting effect. I am certain that that last prediction will come true, because it deals with some long-term economic trends. When it comes to people outside—the public whom we represent in this House—digesting what the Chancellor said, the first thing that they will realise is that they have heard it all before. It seems that the old idea of Treasury purdah has departed, as most of the content of the Budget, if not in specifics then certainly in themes, was well trailed by journalists at the BBC and elsewhere who seem to have had privileged access to what was in it. I would ask those on the Treasury Bench at least to give us some measure of excitement and, at a time when the Chancellor is struggling to say anything of great interest, to stop briefing the press and allow future Budgets to contain one or two measures of genuine surprise. Was there anything in the Budget for my constituents, who would perhaps have sought some comfort from its content in dealing with the things that worry them? They will have heard the Chancellor talk about this country’s low inflation policy. However, I am afraid that although the target may be 2 per cent. on the consumer prices index, which the Chancellor has selected, inflation is much higher than that in the real world, as the retail prices index is well above 4 per cent. When people get their council tax bill through their door, see their rising cost of living and reflect on their rising uncertainty about their economic prospects, I think that they will find their own situation difficult to reconcile with the Chancellor’s words of certainty as regards the economy.