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Pre-Budget Report

I want to underline the point made by my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary. Does the right hon. Gentleman not accept that in the early 1980s and early 1990s the social unrest created by the fiscal consolidation sparked riots in most of our inner cities? One of the telling things about this recession is that although we have seen such a level of unemployment and repossessions, the country has held together—touch wood—remarkably well. There has been a sense that we are pulling together to get people through a real crisis.