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Pre-Budget Report

I am saying that the Government did not fix the roof when the sun was shining. I am saying that we entered this recession with the worst budget deficit and the highest levels of personal debt in the developed world. I am saying that our housing boom was double that of America, and that that is why independent groups such as the International Monetary Fund say that we will have the worst recession of any developed economy. I know that the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) wants to get back into the Cabinet, having resigned from it twice—indeed, that is the best way to get into the Prime Minister's current Cabinet—but the truth is that I have listed what the Government of whom he was a part have done to the economy in the past 10 years. It is not just the appalling debt figures—