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Value Added Tax

I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable). I want, if anything, to add a sense of urgency to the case that he deployed. As we were reminded, we rise tomorrow for the Christmas recess, and when we return the economic landscape will have changed even more than it has in the past few weeks, and will have changed much for the worse. Our debate today should concentrate on the most effective way the Government could spend any extra money that they might consider spending, so that many of the firms that currently employ our constituents have a chance of getting credit and opening after Christmas. Unless we radically change the credit lifelines to many firms, a considerable number of our constituents will not have firms to go back to after Christmas. The sense of urgency that I hope we will demonstrate in the debate comes from the statistics that we already have. We know, for example, that in the worst slump in 100 years, national income—GDP—fell by 5 per cent. We know that probably the most accurate estimate shows GDP already falling at a rate of 4 per cent. and escalating. One hopes that the Government are right, that this is just a temporary blip, and that things will change. I fear not. I fear we may be entering a period of the most severe economic chaos that anyone alive can remember, and we need to judge whether the VAT increase is in any way appropriate as the stimulus to counter that downward trend.