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Legislative Programme and Budget Statement (Wales)

Perhaps it was Callaghan, but that was a fair summary of what was said. In fact, Callaghan and Wilson pioneered the Conservative party’s monetarist policies of the 1980s, and the Labour party cleverly ensured that we took the blame for them before trying to take the credit for all the things that it kept in subsequent years. I see the same thing happening now. It was the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling) who pointed out that we had to make drastic spending cuts. He wants a 20% cut to halve the deficit, but we want a 25% cut to get rid of the deficit in five years—I am no economist, but that sounds like a better deal to me. It will, of course, cause pain, but it would have caused pain whoever was running the country and whoever was running Wales. Nobody celebrates public funding cuts. If nothing else, the situation shows that the Welsh Affairs Committee will have an important role to play over the next few years. I am honoured and delighted to have been appointed Chairman of that Committee, and pay tribute to the previous Chairman, the hon. Member for Aberavon, who did an excellent job. He understood, as I do, the importance of seeking consensus if any of that Committee’s reports are to have any effect. I admit that seeking consensus has not been one of my strong points over the past 11 years in Parliament and the Welsh Assembly—I am on a learning curve.