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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

I was just coming to that, but I do not want to let the Government wholly off the hook on their record. I said that they had wasted the good years, so let us consider the summary: unit labour costs in this country are back to pre-exchange rate mechanism levels; public sector productivity has actually fallen over the past 10 years; and so unreformed are our public services that only half our school leavers get five good GCSEs. The Government are now borrowing so much that even on current bond yields it is cheaper for the Italians to service their borrowing than it is for us to service ours; our Chancellor and Prime Minister are running our public finances worse than Signor Berlusconi is running his. This should have been a Budget that set out in more detail plans to tackle the deficit. The key difference between the Conservatives and the Government is that we know that we cannot sit on our hands for another 12 months. That is also a key difference between us and the Liberal Democrats. To be fair to them, they have spelt out some cuts, but they are saying that none of those cuts should take any effect until April 2011. I simply do not understand that argument. If we think that identity cards, for example, are the wrong way forward and will not better protect us against terrorism, how would a new Government in May or June making an immediate start and getting rid of those jeopardise the economic recovery? If we think that government should be smarter, and that we should freeze recruitment in Whitehall and cut back on consultancy and some of the unnecessary public bodies, how will that suddenly tip us back into recession? There are savings and economies that need to be implemented now, and the Government need to get going. I shall explain how.