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Finance Bill

I would go a little further. It is not just a matter of those forms of debt, but debt in the wider economy—family indebtedness right through the economy. When we look at the figures as a whole, they show Britain not as a relatively low-debt economy, which the raw Government data still do, but as one of the most indebted nations in the world. Such issues are fundamental to what has happened to the British economy and to our response. They will be pivotal to the success or otherwise of whoever is in government in a few weeks' time. In addressing the issues, we need to consider two big questions. The first relates to timing. I am not a simple Keynesian but I believe nevertheless that around the world—it is not just a British issue—we are coping relatively well with a massive shock to the banking systems and the wider economies of the world. The reason why our unemployment has not risen as projected and why growth is resuming, albeit at low levels, is that there has been willingness to invest massively to counter the withdrawal of credit by the private sector by maintaining and bringing forward significant Government spending. That means that the timing of the withdrawal of that spending, and the degree to which we can expect the private sector to pick up the necessary investment that will keep the economy moving forward and growing, is absolutely fundamental to whoever is in government. The knockabout in the papers, which will involve all sides, portrays a Conservative party looking for earlier cuts, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats say that the timing is not yet right, which I believe is fundamentally correct. Anybody tempted to say, when they are being canvassed on the doorstep, "I am not interested. You're all just the same. It makes no difference how I vote," should be under no illusion: what we have seen in the past 12 months, and the response to it, and what we shall see in the next 12 months and the response to that, will be absolutely critical to what happens next in the wider economy. We may disagree about the timing. We may disagree—and we do—about when the decisions should be taken, but for people to throw away their vote in the election, or perhaps not vote at all believing that their vote makes no difference, would be the wrong call.