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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman’s figure; I understand it to be 2.9 per cent. However, let us not quibble about the figures; let us take a look at where we are with debt. The debt position is low and stable. It is settling down below the 40 per cent. target rate, which is in line with the sustainable investment rule. It seems that we have a strong case on the debt position, contrary to what the right hon. Member for Witney said. Under the Conservative Administration, between 1992 and 1997, while the right hon. Gentleman was assisting—if that is the right word—Norman Lamont, 1,000 businesses were going out of business every week. That position has been reversed. The right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley), partly prompted by my intervention, asked the following pertinent question: how can we be sure that the UK economy is in a position to withstand the buffeting of the so-called credit crunch? That is the point that I want to address. Professor Patrick Minford, a commentator not known as a supporter of the Government, stated last week in the financial press that whatever else one can say about the Government’s handling of the British economy, they have produced the most stable, robust economy in living memory. That will determine whether we can weather the storms. It must be accepted by the House that we have a robust economy going forward. Yes, the growth forecast has had to be reduced, for reasons that are well known to the House, but the economy will certainly not go into recession, unlike the USA economy, which appears to be moving in that direction. What else did the Prime Minister, when he was Chancellor, lock into the economy that has been continued in today’s Budget? The context for the Budget is a globalised economy. No one has a crystal ball, and the sub-prime problems from the United States could not have been foreseen, but over the past 10 years the Prime Minister tried to build an economy that could withstand the globalisation of manufacturing, financial services and so on, so that when there is a shift in global economic power from traditional areas such as Europe to India and China, our economy can compete on a level playing field. Another aspect that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister locked into our economy was the absence of economic patriotism. We should not be little Englanders about the economy. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor made it clear today that there should always be an open market and free trade. I welcome that. Without an open market and free trade in the globalised economy, we would have the sort of spat that President Sarkozy has in France. He wants to introduce reforms into the job market and other aspects of the economy, but there is a debate in France about whether there should be economic patriotism and it causes him problems. All of us in the House have watched the Democrat primaries in the USA with interest. The two main contenders have got themselves into a mess by talking about the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, Mexico and the USA, and whether they can lessen or get rid of it and repatriate jobs to rust belt areas such as Ohio. One of the parties was allegedly saying one thing to one Government and another to the public. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has made it absolutely clear—and is right to do so—that we will not have such discussions. My right hon. Friend has also locked into our economy investment in industries that take us into the future. The science base has been supported by a number of Budgets over the years, and the Sainsbury review has been set up to examine and report on it. Capital investment in infrastructure has been one of the areas for which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister set targets, which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has continued today. I have seen how the west coast main line, which I use regularly, has improved over the past 10 years.