Fiscal Responsibility Bill

It would inform the debate, although one is sceptical about the accuracy of some of the data. Recently I told the Chancellor that he had revised upwards his borrowing figures for this year. He appeared to imply that that had not happened, but I have gone back through the figures. In his 2008 Budget—less than two years ago—the Chancellor announced that borrowing for the year 2009-10 would be £38 billion. At the time, some commentators were shocked at the scale of our predicament. Later in 2008—the pre-Budget report just over a year ago—the figure for this year was revised up to £118 billion. In the 2009 Budget, we were told that instead it would be £175 billion, and now the latest estimate for the year that is about to finish is £178 billion. That gap—between the £38 billion forecast less than two years ago and the £178 billion forecast today—represents the Chancellor's credibility in forecasting and deficit reduction. We are borrowing £140 billion more this year than the worst-case scenario forecast less than two years ago. Anyone wanting to know the worth of the legislation need only look at the helpful explanatory notes provided to us all. One line, on page 5, sums it up perfectly:""There are no significant financial effects of the Bill."" Never has anything been said with such brevity and accuracy in an explanatory note, or with such devastating political insight in a document that does not normally verge into that territory. The cupboard is bare, and too much of the political debate is empty. No wonder that Labour and the Conservatives, in the initial skirmishes of the general election campaign, now both look to the Liberal Democrats for leadership and inspiration.