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Policy for Growth

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will not give way again. I have already done so twice. At present, however, the Government have no growth policy at all for areas such as mine which depend heavily on the public sector. There are only 650 parliamentary constituencies. It would not be difficult to undertake an impact analysis of the effects of these economic policies and spending cuts on each constituency. That could be done in short order, but it clearly has not been done. Why not? Is it because the analysis would demonstrate the pain and misery these economic policies will cause in areas and communities such as mine? In the absence of such analysis, policy is demonstrably being both produced and prosecuted in ignorance of its likely effects. What kind of policy is that? The International Monetary Fund has told the Government to develop a plan B. The Government must produce a plan B, and in the interests and spirit of the new politics it should be brought before the House and debated so Members of this House can express their views on it. The likely consequence of Government economic policy is that areas such as mine will suffer more than other parts of the country. Future Labour Governments will have to reverse that decline, but we will never be able to turn the clock back for those whose aspirations went unfulfilled, for those whose dreams were destroyed and for those whose lives were blighted as a result of this Government's current economic policies. My constituents and this country deserve better, and I ask the Government to think again.