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Responding to the Downturn and Planning the Future Economy

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the textile industry, in which I know she has taken a great interest. She organised Yorkshire fashion week, a great showcase event for our region, which I attended with her. She gave an example of intervention in a traditional industry that is looking at the new technologies that could take our region forward, build our jobs and increase our exports, and that is absolutely right. There is a view that one can just stand back from that and say, ““Well, the industry should develop its own new technologies, it does not need any help.”” However, such intervention can often make a real difference. In difficult economic times, in particular, it can be the difference between whole industries going under on the one hand, which is what we saw happen in previous recessions under the Conservative Administration, and helping people through such times and planning what the new economy looks like on the other.