Pre-Budget Report

I fully understand the hon. Gentleman's point on interest rates, and he will appreciate that point because the Conservatives have made major mistakes on interest rates—during the 1990s, for example. Does he accept that his answers to interventions from Members from all parties have been rather simplistic and old-fashioned in reflecting the monetarist versus Keynesian arguments of the past? I am sure that a respected former economist from Shell might have something to say on that very shortly. Does the hon. Gentleman accept that the implication of what he says is that any fiscal stimulus or any measures that the Government have taken to help the economy are not only not worth while but counter-productive, and that the Conservatives would therefore not have undertaken them? Is that his position? Is it also his position that they will protect health and overseas aid—that they will have their cake and eat it—without spelling out what departmental cuts they will make under a Conservative Government?