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Finance Bill

My hon. Friend makes a very important point. The words "boom and bust" are not mentioned many times by Labour Members. In fact, we no longer hear the language of fiscal rules, golden rules and so forth. It would have meant much to the nation if the Prime Minister had said, "Yes, I apologise for my part in what has happened." Instead, as my hon. Friend points out, blame has been put on the Americans and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it has been suggested that what happened over there spilled over here. But it was not the Americans who allowed mortgages of 125 per cent. in the UK, and it certainly was not the Americans who, when the Bank of England became independent, handed over responsibility for certain rules to the Financial Services Authority. The FSA then relaxed those rules, allowing banks to lend and get into debt on a scale that we are now beginning to regret. I return to my intervention on the Chief Secretary about the cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent. to 15 per cent. I do not want to get into the whys and wherefores, and I have already stressed that it was an unwise move. My concern is about when it returns to 17.5 per cent. at midnight on 31 December. I do not know where Labour Front Benchers spend their new year's eve, but if they spend it indoors they will not be aware of the nightmare that the change will cause as every bar, pub, restaurant and so on across the country has to reconcile things when Big Ben strikes midnight. I plead with Ministers to consider that in Committee and ensure that the change back up to 17.5 per cent. is debated. I have suggested Sunday 3 January as a possible date for the change, or 31 January, which would allow the sales to benefit. One consequence of an increase in VAT is a sudden rush to buy things before it goes up. I stress that the reason why the cut was unwise in the first place is that many small and medium-sized businesses, which could have benefited from more support from the Government, were already offering discounts of 10, 15 or 20 per cent., so a 2.5 per cent. drop was neither here nor there.