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Finance Bill

Yes. On top of the demise of our post offices, which the Government have gone about destroying by taking away business from the local post offices in our villages, the pub is another great centre of activity that will, unfortunately, continue to decline. I say that as someone who is pretty much a teetotaller. Let me turn to clause 9. We have heard much about VAT. We have all seen that the VAT decrease has done very little to change people's behaviour. I have not found that any retailers to whom I have spoken have been jumping up and down saying, "Yippee, the 2.5 per cent. cut has meant that we have seen a huge amount of business coming our way." I want to reflect on one point that was made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Ellwood), when he pushed the Chief Secretary on her focus on the important date of 31 December. He asked her—she did not answer, but perhaps the Minister could when he winds up—whether they would consider moving that date two or three days to perhaps 3 January. As we have heard from my hon. Friend, who is probably more of an expert on this issue than I am, 31 December is clearly an important date for retailers. I hope that the Minister will answer that question when he winds up. Again, we see sleight of hand when we look at the detail of clauses 19 to 22, which deal with bingo duty. The Government are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Bingo operators were shocked to hear the Financial Secretary say that the increase in bingo duty and the abolition of VAT on stakes was "welcome to the industry". Does he expect us to believe that the industry welcomed a 46 per cent. duty hike? I find it astonishing that he would say that. Instead of whacking the industry with a 46 per cent. tax hike, will he at least agree to consider measures that the Conservatives have suggested to support bingo halls? For months, we have been proposing a modest increase in the permitted stakes for category B3 machines alongside a proportionate increase in the number of machines allowed in each establishment. Would that not give a real help to an industry that is finding life particularly challenging? Finally, I shall mention clauses 15 and 16, on fuel duty. When the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie) was talking about that, I pointed out that the previous two fuel duty increases had already cost hard-pressed businesses half a billion pounds—£533 million. Does the Minister fear that our proposal of a fair fuel stabiliser, as proposed early in the debate by my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, would be a more appropriate way to address this issue? It would make life easier for consumers and also for the Treasury, because it would lead to greater predictability of what it receives over a cycle and help it to manage its Budget going forward. It has been a long afternoon already—I have been here for at least six hours—so I shall wrap up now. The devil is always in the detail, so I hope to have an opportunity to spend a little more time on the Bill when it is in Committee of the House, going over some other issues, but I shall conclude now by saying that the Prime Minister has indeed taken Britain from boom to bust. The Budget was more political than economic; it was a Budget of tax, borrowing and spend and has failed to put UK plc on a course that would balance the books and put us on the road to recovery.