Finance Bill

My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. If an organisation is not willing to undertake the training that the nation needs, we have to find alternative ways of funding the training through the tax system. My right hon. and good Friend the Chancellor the Exchequer made an announcement about raising education spending to £90 billion over the next couple of years. Those improvements and changes are what Finance Bills and Finance Acts bring about and they are the backbone of British innovation. The proposed increase in the number of apprenticeships is fundamental to this country being able to take itself forward. I chair a Staffordshire taskforce that works with people who have been made redundant in some of the traditional industries and, indeed, some more modern industries. I am a member of Unity, Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union, and Unity acts as the umbrella on the taskforce for a number of other trade unions and organisations. Through its excellent work, the work force are given the opportunity to gain the skills that they require and the modern market needs. We must make sure that the competitiveness of the UK economy is supported, and legislation, such as the Finance Bill, can aim to push through provisions for that. Those on the Opposition Front Benches said that the Bill could upset the economy. However, as other hon. Members have argued, we have an extremely stable economy. We have low and stable inflation. Yes, there are peaks and troughs within that, but overall the situation is extremely stable compared with—[Interruption.] I hear derisory comments from the Opposition Benches. During the 18 years before the Government took office in 1997, the situation could in no way be described as stable or level. There was no considered growth during that period, with two deep and damaging recessions, as has been mentioned, and with inflation and interest rates out of control and at times changing almost daily. I recollect the tables produced by the Inland Revenue when I had the great good fortune of working for that organisation in the early part of my career. Tables produced for calculating the interest on the late payment of tax would be amended with frightening regularity because of the fluctuations in interest rates. The derision from the Opposition Benches seems to have stopped.