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Finance Bill

I think that we should move on from the knockabout, as it does no one any particular justice. I want to begin my remarks by concentrating on the big picture that underpins the Finance Bill, rather than on the detail of individual clauses. Massive choices have to be made about how we go forward, in the light of the credit crunch and its impacts on Government budgets. It has also impacted on the real world of people's lives, jobs and housing, and on their ability to afford homes and to provide for their families. Risks remain of a further downturn in the economy and a double-dip recession, and there are questions about the economy's real value and worth. How much of what happened in the last decade or so was real, and how much was unreal? We must never forget that we face the deficits that we face mainly because what was assumed to be real economic growth has been recast, at a stroke of a Treasury pen, as not growth at all, and therefore not real income.