Pre-Budget Report

Several minutes ago, the hon. Gentleman said that it was a mainstream view that there should be a reduction in the deficit through large and early public expenditure cuts, and he rather condescendingly rejected the opinions of those who took a different view. How does he explain the case of Japan in the 1990s? It followed exactly that policy. When recovery started, it raised the sales tax and reduced expenditure, and it went into a double-dip recession. How does he also explain that Roosevelt through the new deal expanded the economy, and as it began to come out of the slump, as a result of increasing taxes and reducing public expenditure, it went into a further slump that did not end until the war? Is the hon. Gentleman not pursuing exactly those wrong policies?