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Work Programme (Wales)

There was a serious problem with young people not in education, employment or training. We introduced the education maintenance allowance and special programmes, such as the future jobs fund, to bring their number down and, indeed, we were starting to succeed. What the hon. Gentleman and, indeed, all Government Members do not recognise, because it does not suit their dogmatic, right-wing agenda, is that until the banking crisis, our economy was in better shape than anyone had ever dreamt of—so much better shape that the Conservative Opposition, in which the Secretary of State was a Front Bencher at the time, voluntarily signed up to our spending programme for 2008-10. They said they would carry on that programme. What then changed was what changed the whole world—the banking crisis that hit us all.