Fiscal Responsibility Bill

I will not give way, if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, because I am about to finish. Clause 1 in particular was designed as a political trap. The Prime Minister hoped that we would either have to support the Bill and clause 1, and thus be bound into a reckless policy of tightening if and when we won the election and found ourselves faced with a downturn, or we would oppose it, in which case he could say, "Ah well, the Conservatives are against all fiscal responsibility." The trap has been sprung, but the Prime Minister, not us, has been caught. The measure does no more then illustrate that there is nothing left to the economic policy of this Labour Government worth the name.