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Finance Bill

Yes, indeed. The plain fact is that the application of tax and spend is different in each country, and countries claim in some fashion that that indicates national sovereign power. What they completely fail to tell you—I do not mean you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I mean people in general—is that actually the amount of manoeuvring room within the parameters that give rise to the differentials is still based on the same criteria, so we still come back to the requirements laid down in the Maastricht criteria. It is hardly surprising that I found myself voting against them and doing my utmost to undermine the arrangements that were put in place by John Major's Government.