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Finance Bill

I apologise, Mr. Deputy Speaker; when I begin to enjoy myself, I get somewhat carried away. I hope that I will remember to phrase my speech in the correct manner. I want to discuss the cyclical and structural nature of the public expenditure deficits, because there is an issue involved that we really have to address for the future if we are to get our public expenditure back to a sensible amount. Members have said that the structural element of the deficit is about four fifths of the total deficit. I do not think that anyone has queried that. We have not really debated in the Chamber today—and I suspect that we will not do so before the general election—what proposals we will bring forward to address that structural part of the deficit. We heard earlier from my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field), who suggested a number of proposals; I will come back to them. A lot of the hardy annuals from both main Opposition parties have suggested that we could look at scrapping identity cards. I have opposed, and will continue to oppose, identity cards for all sorts of reasons, but I would not go so far as to say that there is a significant amount of money to be saved—not an amount that will make a substantial difference to the problem of the deficit. That is part of the problem with some of the suggestions made, mostly, dare I say, by members of Her Majesty's loyal Opposition. They do not really address the scale of the problem that we face.