Pre-Budget Report

I think that we needed that explanation, and I did actually understand it. The second cause of the crisis was the cost of the measures to counter the recession that the banking crisis has brought about. The third was the loss of tax income that resulted from the recession, which was caused by the bankers. So it all goes back to the bankers. This is all the inevitable result of the worldwide banking crisis, and it is no use the Tories and their friends, or the bankers and their apologists, trying to blame this Government in general or the Prime Minister in particular. It is also true to say that, at almost every stage in this crisis, those on the Tory Front Bench have opposed the crucial measures that the Government have taken to save the banking industry from catastrophe, to protect jobs, homes and businesses from a deeper recession, and to get recovery under way. The Tories have opposed them all. It might be the duty of the Opposition to oppose, but surely there are limits. A bit of common sense would not go amiss now and again. The recession caused by the bankers has led to unemployment, repossessions and business failures, but those outcomes have been nothing like as bad as the City analysts whom the Tories keep quoting were predicting. One reason for that is that, unlike the hysterical analysts in the City, most people running businesses live in the real world and are level-headed. They are trying to keep their firms and their work forces together so that they will still be in business when demand for their goods and services rises again. Their efforts have been backed up by the Government's determination to keep pumping money into the economy to make up for the damage caused by the bankers. This included bringing forward investment projects, the public purchasing of goods and services from the private sector, and the quantitative easing that has poured money into the economy. It also included the temporary reduction in VAT, which was derided by those on the Tory Front Bench and their analyst friends when the Government introduced it, although it is now acknowledged as having been a considerable help. We all have to recognise, however, that the effects of the recession are far from over. The recovery is under way, but it is quite fragile. Yet this is the moment that the Tories are choosing to demand massive, immediate cuts in Government spending. They claim that this would reduce the Government's deficit, but it would not, because it would involve more people being thrown out of work. Throwing people out of work does not reduce the deficit. Quite the reverse: throwing people out of work increases it. Every job lost is a triple whammy for the taxpayer. First, the taxpayer has to go without the goods and services that the job-losers used to produce. Secondly, the taxpayer has to fund the benefits needed to keep the jobless and their families. Thirdly, the taxpayer has to do without the tax that the job-losers would have paid if they were still in work.