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The Budget

On the point about the weakness of the private sector in Wales, I stick to what I said in 2008, but the solution to that is not to cut the public sector, because the private sector depends in great part in Wales on the contracts that it receives from the public sector. The solution is not to cut the public sector savagely, knocking into bankruptcy lots of Welsh businesses and the jobs that go with them, but to increase and boost the private sector. That is the answer to that particular conundrum, as indeed I argued in 2008 and am happy to repeat for the Secretary of State’s benefit today. On 7 March, the Cabinet met at Rolls-Royce in Derby and the Prime Minister conjured up images of enemies of enterprise in the town halls of Wales and Whitehall. A better clue to what is wrong with the British economy came the same day when Barclays declared how big this year’s bonuses will be. The new boss of Barclays, Bob Diamond, received a bonus of more than £6 million and a potential total pay package of £9 million. At Rolls-Royce, the incoming chief executive, John Rishton, can hope for less than half that figure, however well he performs. What a comparison and what an insight into the Government’s priorities. The bonuses at Barclays had so many zeros, and so many bankers were awarded one, that Barclays’ remuneration report was 17 pages long.