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World Leaders Summit

My Lords, I am sorry that the people of New York were not able to read in the New York Times of the success of the G20 meeting in Washington. That is their loss, not ours. The important thing to remember about this summit, notwithstanding the fact that President-elect Obama was understandably not present, is that if we had not started the G20 talks until the end of January with the new Administration, we would be two or three months behind where we are now. Twenty leaders, heads of state and Government, have agreed on 50 action points. They have a route map so they know where they want to get to. As soon as President-elect Obama becomes President, they know where to begin their discussions with him rather that just his transition team. Is the biggest problem unemployment? It clearly is one of the biggest problems. It is interesting to note that while in this country we are losing jobs, which is regrettable, other jobs are being created. I believe that there are just fewer than 600,000 job vacancies on the books at the moment. I may have to reflect on that figure and come back to the noble Lord, but there are many vacancies although, regrettably, people are still losing their jobs. We shall do everything that we can to ensure that more jobs are created.