Clause 20 - Duty to make references in relation to completed mergers
Enterprise Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Ken Purchase (Wolverhampton North East, Labour/Co-operative)
I am sorry not to have heard the very beginning of what the hon. Gentleman said, but on the narrow point of productivity and planning versus competition, is it not true that during the 1980s, when there was relatively free and unfettered competition, the underlying trend for growth was almost precisely the same as it had been throughout the post-war period? There may be merits to either system, but one cannot make absolute claims on behalf of either of them.