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The Budget

My hon. Friend, as always, makes a telling and expert contribution on the matter. That is the truth about what has been happening to the economy and the dangers of the Government’s deliberate slowing of growth, to the point where it was actually negative last quarter. To respond directly to the Secretary of State, I am intrigued that she is attempting to reposition herself. Last year, she was a kind of John Redwood cross-dresser, imposing massive cuts on Wales and cancelling Budget projects with disdain and arrogance. Now she is—I am searching for the correct description—a Welsh Assembly Government mother hen. She is giving us a patronising lecture, directed at the Welsh Assembly Government, about how if she personally helps them out with her experience and wisdom, they will see the Conservative light. That posture is resented just as much as her previous incarnation by the Welsh Assembly Government and people in Wales. She should be supporting the Welsh Assembly Government and the people of Wales, rather than treating us punitively as her Government are. To come to the main point that I wanted to argue in my speech, Ministers have spent the past 10 months peddling the same succinct message: ““Britain’s bust. Too much spending, too much borrowing, too much debt. The result? We’ve got to slash public spending, the sooner the better. It’s all Labour’s fault.”” The subtext is, ““If it’s not hurting, it ain’t working.”” However, that is a tall story, a work of fiction and deception. For a start, it omits the characters who are key to Britain’s present predicament: the banks. Irresponsible action by banks triggered the global credit crunch, plunged the world economy into recession and produced today’s problems with the public finances. The banks made massive loans to borrowers who could not afford to repay them, creating a property bubble in the process.