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The Economy

I could not agree more. It is classic new Labour spin: they say "Let us make an announcement and get it in the media," and of course it is half-baked and not ready to go. That saps confidence and people do not believe that there is a steady hand at the tiller. We saw with Northern Rock all the dithering and not knowing what to do, and how damaging it was for public and consumer confidence. All these schemes are announced, but they do not come in on time. They are not even being advertised properly to the high street banks, as we have heard, and that is just not good enough. We will pay a huge price. People remember previous levels of unemployment, and Labour Members have had much to say about that. Indeed, the Prime Minister spoke in his maiden speech of mass unemployment as""the grossest affront to human dignity".—[Official Report, 27 July 1983; Vol. 46, c. 1240.]" For years he has spoken about unemployment, but it is time that he got real about what we are facing. He is likely to leave office as this country has the highest level of unemployment in its history. The record so far is 3.1 million, and he is likely to exceed that. He is already following the old-fashioned Labour Government route: they always leave a higher level of unemployment when they leave office than when they came in.