---

Finance Bill

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his usual generosity. What I find amusing is this kind of groundhog day; we sat through the Conservative party making the same proposal, or what sounded very much like it, 12 months ago with the fuel duty stabiliser. There was a kind of shock-horror among Conservatives a few months later when they realised that as a result of their fuel duty stabiliser proposals, certainly as put forward last year, a marked drop in the price of oil on world markets would have left motorists in a far worse position. If the hon. Gentleman is outlining a different fuel duty stabiliser—mark II—this year, perhaps he could put a little more flesh on the bones, because it sounds awfully like last year's disastrous proposal.