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Finance Bill

I agree with the hon. Gentleman's point, because the predictions are both bleak and optimistic at the same time. The Chancellor tells us that the economy will grow by 3.5 per cent. in 2011 and the same in all subsequent years. He had better be right—but I am afraid that the Government's track record of predicting economic growth is hardly encouraging. In his final Budget, in 2007, the present Prime Minister tried his hand at predicting future debt. We can see the predictions year on year by going back and looking at Red Books. His predictions in 2007 were the least accurate forecast that this country has seen since the day before southern England was flattened by a terrible storm, when Michael Fish said:""A woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way, well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't."" There was a hurricane then, and there is an economic hurricane now. The Prime Minister completely failed to foresee it. In his final Budget speech, in 2007, he said that borrowing in 2009 would be £30 billion. Instead, as we know, it is £175 billion. That is how accurate his last two-year forecast was. My fear is that the Chancellor has retro-fitted his entire Budget assumptions. He has decided what level of debt he would like in 2011 and then calculated the growth rate necessary to achieve it. Does that growth rate include quantitative easing, to try to inflate it further? We have to hope the figures are more reliable than that. Whether or not that is included, we must hope that those predictions come true, but the omens are not auspicious. The Budget forecasts look like the sort of predictions that politicians make when they do not expect to be in office when the day for which they are forecasting arrives. If Labour does not deserve to be in Government, which I think is manifestly the case—