The Economy

I am afraid I do not have time; I am sorry. The impact on pubs has been mentioned. We need to take into account my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley's idea of bringing VAT relief to an end. We need to explore the effect that will have and to make sure that it does not have a negative impact on pubs. The duties must be addressed. One thing I would have loved to have time to expand upon is state-run businesses, perhaps in the environmental sector. Now might be an opportunity to look at using the state system to get up and running some environmental businesses that perhaps later we could put back into the private sector. As has been mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham, we did put the roof on. I could list the countless things that we have done in Stoke-on-Trent, South, from children's centres, Sure Start centres and health centres; huge improvements have been made in and around the constituency. I would list them if I had time. Finally, the Opposition Front-Bench Members lamented the fact that they have been trying to get this debate for a long time. If that were the case, I would have hoped that the shadow Chancellor, who I see in his place—although the shadow shadow Chancellor is not—would do a much better job in his speech. Quite frankly, if that was the standard with six months' notice, it was pitiful.