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Finance Bill

"Four hours for all the stages of the Finance Bill from start to finish…is…a most extraordinary precedent…due not to accident or misfortune but to the sheer incompetence and mismanagement of the Government".—[Official Report, 13 March 1992; Vol. 205, c. 1140-41.] Those are not my words but those of the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East and Wallsend (Mr. Brown), spoken from the Opposition Benches about the passage of the Finance Bill in 1992. He considered four hours to be an unacceptable period in which to debate 11 clauses, and perhaps he was right. It is far from ideal. But now that the right hon. Gentleman has risen to the rank of Chief Whip, and is principally responsible for the incompetence and mismanagement of the Government's business programme, he thinks that three hours is enough time in which to debate 70-odd clauses. In view of the shortness of the debate, it is probably just as well that the Government broke with precedent and arranged for the Financial Secretary to the Treasury rather than the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to open it. Given his performance last week, it is unlikely that the Chief Secretary would have made it to the Chamber for the end of the debate, let alone the start. I also note that the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) has maintained his fine record for not taking part in discussion of the detail of the Finance Bill. Although he has been nominated for delegated legislation Committees and been selected to serve on Committees dealing with many Treasury Bills, he never seems to arrive on time.