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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Excesses of any ideology are bad and wrong. I am a pragmatist, and I think we should just get on with the way we live our lives, and not adhere strictly to such ideologies, so the hon. Gentleman is right in one way. My hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. Fallon) made a wonderful speech—it was short and to the point—and we should take a great deal of encouragement from, and listen to, his expertise. I think people want us to recognise the problem that we are facing and to say how we are going to sort it out. I put this question to those on the Treasury Bench: can they look me in the face and say they would have delivered the same Budget if an election were not looming? That is the honesty that I would like. If there were another two years of this Parliament to run—God help us—they would not have delivered that Budget. We would not have been told, "We'll come back to the problem in a couple of months." That is the disservice that they have done not only to the country or businesses but to every person in the country. I received a letter today from Mr. Robert Fowler, managing director of Maygray in my constituency. His business rates bill has obviously just arrived, and he wanted me to know that there has been""a 70 per cent increase over the life of this government and a 12 per cent increase over the last year"" in his rates. That is the reality that businesses face. We in this House can all pontificate and talk about the wonderful schemes, but the reality for most people is far different. I am afraid to say that many in this House have no idea about business—I would say that many have no idea of the real world, but that would be unfair, because we all return home to the real world every night—and that knowledge of what makes business work is an increasingly rare commodity here. Mr. Fowler asked me what I would do if the bank manager came to me and asked what I was going to do about my overdraft. If I followed the Chancellor's advice, I would say, "I'll write you a cheque. Will that sort it out?" It would be as simple as that. Last Friday, I visited Hale Hamilton Valves, a business in my constituency. I have travelled past its premises nearly all my life, which are known mostly in my area for the wonderful magnolia that comes out at this time of year—everybody recognises it. The business, which makes valves and things for submarines, is wonderful. The people at that firm told me about the difficulty they had in getting people in as apprentices, because that sort of work is not recognised. For all that we welcome the university places—although, as my hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) said, funding for those is for only one year, which seems slightly pointless—the Government could do something just by increasing the status of engineers and technical qualifications. We have heard about the banks today. Many people have complained to me that they are not getting the finance that they need, despite the taxpayers' money that has been put into the banks, but my business has been lucky. I pay tribute to bankers—not to those who were the architects of the problems but to the ordinary people working in banks. Like people in this House, people who work in banks have received a great deal of abuse. I have heard about that from various friends and acquaintances and from my bank manager, who says that he does not want to go down to the local pub because he will get all the banking jokes—and we can all recognise some similarity with our own position. I would like to thank people who work in banks, who have been very supportive but whose own jobs are under threat because of the actions of some. I have some good news. The London borough of Hillingdon, where I have lived all my life, was almost bankrupt, but the Conservative administration has turned it round. It can be done, and Conservatives can do it. With all sincerity and from the bottom of my heart, I pray that this is the last Labour Budget that I have to endure for a long time. This Prime Minister, both as Prime Minister and as Chancellor, will—if we have any more of this wretched Government—have achieved what two world wars, the great depression and many other things that my company has faced over the century could not, because we cannot continue in this environment any more. It is no good saying that people are exaggerating: businesses are on their knees because of this Government. We wanted a Budget, but we got a fudge-it.