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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

I should like to declare an interest, in that I am the owner of a small retail convenience store in Swansea, and something that I say in the 10 minutes to which I shall restrict myself might relate to that. In the spirit of the greenness that we all talk about these days, I am also thinking about doing a carbon offset on this speech. I shall read it tomorrow, and I shall offset anything that I feel has not added to the day—if the Chancellor will do the same. If he did that we would be quids in, because his was possibly one of the most boring Budget speeches that I have heard in my 16 years as a Member of Parliament. I was waiting for the big idea, and I still am. I know that we are not allowed refreshments in the Chamber, but there is an exception, in that the Chancellor is traditionally allowed a sip of whisky while he makes his Budget speech. If the right hon. Gentleman is still Chancellor at the time of the next Budget, perhaps everyone in the Chamber might be allowed a double espresso to keep them awake. His speech sounded to me much as the shipping forecast would sound to a lettuce picker in Mexico; it was that dire. I hope that over the course of this week’s debates, Treasury Ministers will talk about the inflation rate. The 2 per cent. rate is mentioned time and again, and the Chancellor referred to it today. It is not an inflation rate that I recognise. That is not simply because of petrol prices or agricultural prices going through the roof. It is also to do with council tax, and the Government have even imposed an increase in prescription charges that is greater than 2 per cent. Everyone knows that the real inflation rate is much higher than 2 per cent. Stating that it is not might allow the Chancellor to ensure that public sector salary increases—and pension increases—are kept low, but we all know that it is much higher. We also heard a lot about things that will happen in 2010, 2012, 2015 or even 2020. Well, most of my mates—although perhaps not all of them—live in 2008, and that is what we want the Budget to be about. We want to know what is happening now, not 20 or 30 years in the future.