UK Parliament / Open data

Pre-Budget Report

Proceeding contribution from Vincent Cable (Liberal Democrat) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 26 November 2008. It occurred during Emergency debate on Pre-Budget Report.
Let me take that last phrase; is it therefore too risky to embark upon a fiscal stimulus? That is the key issue, and I wish to move on to it. The Conservatives have clearly taken the view that it is too risky; they believe that it is either too dangerous to have a fiscal expansion, or that that will be ineffective. I fundamentally disagree, because it is one of the fundamental duties of Government in times of war and slump to sustain the economy. The Government inevitably are, and have to be, the investor of last resort to keep economies going and ultimately to reduce the level of borrowing, which rises if economies get into a downward spiral. That is a fundamental duty. The Chancellor had a very good line in his response on Monday, which we all laughed at. It was about past Labour Chancellors, but if he knew a little more about Labour history, he would remember that the really tragic case was not Denis Healey, James Callaghan or Sir Stafford Cripps, but it was a man called Philip Snowden, and his boss, Ramsay MacDonald. They came into office, rather as the Conservatives now hope to do, in a slump situation with the hopes of the nation behind them, and they looked at the public accounts and said, ““This is awful. We have to cut back and balance the Budget.”” Millions of people suffered as a consequence. That is, I think, the course that the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) and his colleagues want us to embark upon.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
483 c761 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Back to top