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Comprehensive Spending Review

Thank you, Mr Owen. I will take your advice to heart. One of the depressing features of the sorts of conversations that we have had today is the lack of reference to our voters’ views. It has been about politicians and political parties for politicians and political parties. I know that he would not mind my saying this, but it is not often that I regret not being in the same room as the right hon. Member for Neath, the former Secretary of State, but on this occasion I want to follow up on a point that I made earlier about the election result, which was, of course, the last opportunity that anybody had to express a view about the various offers on the table. He said, kindly, that bad election results have many reasons behind them, but he failed to articulate a single one, and I simply want to put this to him. In May, we had a situation in Wales where, and I quote from my favourite local newspaper, the Carmarthen Journal: ““In a move seen as rolling out the big guns,””— their words, not mine— ““the cabinet minister strolled through Llanelli and Carmarthen town centres, warning against letting David Cameron seize control.”” The right hon. Member for Neath said: ““I believe as people face up to the choice for the country, do they want a Tory Government back in power or a Labour Government taking Carmarthenshire forward, then I think they will come back to Labour.”” I had an opportunity to thank the right hon. Gentleman for his help, because we managed to achieve a slightly above-average swing from Labour to the Conservatives in Carmarthenshire, and that was with 39% of the electorate being public sector workers. More importantly, whether you consult a private citizen or a small, medium or large business in west Wales, these are the expressions—their words, not mine—that come up time and time again; hon. Members on both sides may have similar experiences: ““exasperation””, ““let down by Labour”” and ““please sort out the mess””. Those expressions were put to us before and since the election by people who had no particular axe to grind. The reasons given include banks, which the right hon. Member for Torfaen, a former Secretary of State, mentioned. Of course, banks and lending policy form a major part of that. Over 13 years, the lack of regulation exasperated small and medium-sized businesses in my area. The approach to increasing, overwhelming and strangling red tape and regulation was something that completely confused and, in some cases, frustrated the progress of those businesses. Yet, over 13 years, the Labour party could only ever approach those kinds of problems with two answers: create a new law or write a cheque. Neither of those two solutions worked when it came to the deregulation of business in Wales.