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Finance Bill

I will not go down this track much further, because if I did we would stray far from the Second Reading of the Finance Bill. I simply say, as an MP representing a west midlands constituency, that if our Government and society were able to do more for manufacturing, that would address some of the trade issues to which the hon. Gentleman refers. I support Keynesian counter-cyclical spending—and we are getting that big-time in this Budget and Finance Bill, with their tax measures—because at the end of the day this issue is all about people's lives. I am not talking about the general well-being index; this is about jobs, homes, families and people's feelings of security. I have talked about different courses of action. Do I think that 24 years from now—or when the hon. Member for Taunton is 62 years of age, as he said—our society and our people's well-being will be better than they would have been if we had slashed Government spending, delayed the economic recovery and left people, particularly those who are most vulnerable, without the services they need? I referred to crystal balls earlier. I do not have a crystal ball, but we need to have a sense of history. With the notable exception of Germany, most western Governments did not pursue counter-cyclical spending in the dirty '30s, and we know where that approach led. This is a gamble, but, particularly in terms of vulnerable people's lives, I think the Government are absolutely right to engage in counter-cyclical spending in order to maintain services, invest for the future and build for tomorrow. This Budget and this Finance Bill are good steps in that direction.