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Economic Growth and Employment

I am glad that my right hon. Friend brings up the Thatcher era, because a well known noble Lord was asked on Sunday whether such initiatives, which seek to make it easier to fire as opposed to hire people, act as a stimulus to job creation. He told the BBC what he thought of that, saying:"““I've been responsible for one of those deregulation initiatives for many years and I would be quite frank in telling you that I don't think we achieved much.””" He went on to say that"““you want to be very careful in political terms that you don't get the reputation that all you're trying to do is make life rougher and tougher for large numbers of people.””" Those are the words of the noble Lord Heseltine, and, if a Conservative-led Government are unable to persuade him to buy into the concept, why should the rest of us do so?