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Amendment of the law

I would advise them to continue returning my hon. Friend to Parliament. I remind the House that he was one of the first to draw attention to the impact of unemployment in individual constituencies as a result of Labour's recession. The Chancellor made great play yesterday of his guarantee to everyone aged between 18 and 24 who claims jobseeker's allowance for more than a year that they will be given a work placement or work-related training. That was the big the promise on unemployment. Well, we have done some research over the past 24 hours. What the Chancellor did not tell us is that, as of today, only 5,755 people are covered by that guarantee. I hope that it is good help to that 5,755, but there are 1.2 million young people aged between 18 and 24 who do not qualify. They are languishing; they are not in school, not in a job and not in training—a record number of NEETs under the Government. We heard much of the green recovery that would be unleashed by the Budget—something that I know is very much on the mind of the Secretary of State; no doubt he thought all about it in advance and did the spinning. What happened? What about the electric car announcement? The battery ran out before it even made it to the Budget speech. Friends of the Earth said about yesterday:""The Government has squandered a historic opportunity to kick-start a Green industrial revolution."" WWF says that""what was announced is not the bold leadership we desperately need to secure a truly low-carbon future."" The leadership on that future, like the leadership on so many other big challenges facing Britain today, has to wait for a new Conservative Government. That lack of leadership is the legacy of a Prime Minister who has always been more interested in short-term political dividing lines than in any long-term vision for the country. For years, the Prime Minister said that the choice was between Labour investment and Tory cuts; now, he has cut investment in schools and hospitals and given us £84 billion of Labour cuts, but he still lacks the courage to admit it or debate it. For years, he said that the choice was between the many versus the few; now, he is raising taxes on the many and the few, including a tax on jobs in a recovery. For years, he said that the choice was between Tory boom and bust and Labour prudence and stability, and now he has given us the prudence of the worst budget deficit in our history, the stability of the deepest recession since the second world war and the tragedy of the greatest boom turning to the biggest bust. Eighteen months ago, the Prime Minister cancelled the general election—no doubt on the advice of the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State—and said that he wanted more time to set out his vision. That is what he said. Now we know, after yesterday's Budget, that there is no vision to set out, and the sooner we change our Government, the sooner we will get the change that our country so desperately needs.