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Proceeding contribution from Justine Greening (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 24 June 2010. It occurred during Budget debate on Budget debate.


Capital Gains Tax (Rates)

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Let us just talk about the Office for Budget Responsibility. I still cannot quite work out whether the Opposition support it. I am happy to take an intervention from the shadow Secretary of State to clarify that. We are none the wiser. On the point about changing forecasts, and the OBR forecast pre-Budget and its forecast on the Budget, let me be clear about what it said about comparing those two forecasts. If the Opposition have any shred of credibility, I hope that they will pay attention to this. At the bottom of page 94 of the Red Book it says it is:""misleading to interpret the difference between the pre-Budget and Budget forecasts as the economic impact of the Budget measures."" The Opposition want it all ways. They want to quote some figures and, as my hon. Friend says, conveniently forget the key figure, which showed that the structural deficit was worse. They want partially to welcome it warmly, but to ignore what it says about the impact of comparing false statistics. They do the debate, which is important for people throughout the country as we go through an incredibly difficult process, a real disservice, because the British public need them to play a role, which should be for them as the Opposition to come up with some constructive comments. It would have been better if they could have come up with some kind of an alternative, but we have had none today. We need take no lectures from the Opposition about fairness. This is the party that did a pensions raid. This is the party that came up with the 10p tax fiasco. This is the party that widened the gap between rich and poor. This is the party that told us we had an end to boom and bust. It is no wonder the savings ratio in Britain went down. If people had listened to the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown)—who knows where he is now?—they would never have thought that they needed to save for a rainy day. The British people get it, because they have started paying down their debts, but the Opposition parties have totally missed the point. They seem to be living in a post-election bubble, and they have not taken a moment even to reflect on what has happened or on the verdict of the British voters, let alone to reach the stage at which they might apologise for the mess that they handed over to the coalition Government. The two parties in government have taken the decision that they need to work together for the British public's interest in order to find a resolution to our crisis, and to get ourselves out of this financial mess.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
512 c532-3 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Bank services Climate change Capital investment Housing Environment protection Government assistance Economic situation Economic growth Forecasts National income Public expenditure Pollution control Public sector debt Standards Taxation VAT Institute for Fiscal Studies Office for Budget Responsibility Bank levy Sheffield Forgemasters Budget June 2010
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk