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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

No, I am very sorry; I am afraid that I cannot. I call on the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to bring back Lord Young, who understands such matters well, knows the grislier ways of Whitehall and is ideally qualified to lead a tough, cross-departmental effort to enforce the measures needed to reduce onerous administrative burdens, particularly on our small and medium-sized businesses. I know that many Ministers are aware of the importance of doing that, but from the Back Benches making progress often feels like wading through very deep mud. The sometimes apparent weakness of the civil service, judicial activism, thickets of regulation, and an infantilised and often financially illiterate press can all make it impossible to progress. The Government need to make a big effort to move on the issue. On taxation I need say only this. A more competitive, simpler and more stable tax system will be better for everyone, rich and poor alike. Such a system would also go a long way towards restoring our badly lost international competitiveness, to which the last Government did such terrible damage. Finally, let me briefly say a word about banks and the language of relentless negativity that is doing great harm to the City of London, which is one of the greatest assets that this country has. That language—particularly of the Opposition, but also of much of the press—is self-defeating, illiterate and often infantile. It needs to stop, and the debate needs to grow up. Many new jobs in banks headquartered in London are now being located overseas. That is very bad news. The Chancellor has averted a fiscal calamity. I am optimistic about the future of this country, but we face a long, hard slog.