The hon. Lady will have an opportunity to refute my arguments more eloquently than by saying nonsense from a sedentary position.

One of the other issues untouched by this Bill is the imbalance of the Community budget. My hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-East (Mr. Leighton) spoke about that, the runaway expenditure on the common agricultural policy. As my hon. Friend said, the money is not going to the farmer; it is going to the owners of the cold stores and the grain silos. Those are the people who make money because a large amount is spent on storing and destroying the surpluses, and that is not always done in support of the farmer. The scandal we heard recently about butter and beef being exported to Libya at preferential prices caused great indignation.

The budget crisis in the Community is much worse than the Government will admit. It is much worse than most hon. Members realise. The structure of the funds of that budget are in deep trouble. Some regional and social expenditure is already frozen. I hope that the hon. Lady will tell us the effect of the freezing of regional and social funds for projects in the Community. We are told by placards and other means when money from these funds is being spent in the United Kingdom. I hope that the hon. Lady will tell us the effect of freezing those funds. We see from today's newspapers that the farm Commissioner admits that agricultural expenditure will push the expenditure of the Community through the 1·4 per cent. VAT ceiling. As Conservative Members will know, Spanish and Portuguese farmers are no fools. That rise is before taking account of the fact that they will get advisers over to tell them how to make the most out of the Intervention support that they can get from the CAP and about all the extra help that can be obtained by increasing production. Even the current predictions for budget overspend will, in reality, prove modest.

But, of course, there will be the usual juggling, fiddling and holding over of expenditure in order to try to balance the budget. There will no doubt be requests for supplementary budgets, and requests following intergovernmental agreements. Despite our questions, we have never yet been told by any Minister what guarantee there is that there will be no further demands for additional spending during the current financial year. If a local authority in the United Kingdom asked for more money, it would be in difficulties. If, for example, that authority was Liverpool or Lambeth, it would be dragged through the courts. But that does not happen to the Community. It has an open-ended agreement to spend, and seems to have a blank cheque from the Government.

Given the growing commitments, the demands on the regional and social funds, and the fact that agriculture expenditure is out of control, it is not surprising that one area of expenditure is being pushed further and further down the list of priorities. I refer to the United Kingdom rebate. The Minister shakes her head, but perhaps she will confirm later that not one penny of the 1985 refund has been paid. When will it be paid? Can she confirm whether the much-vaunted automaticity will apply? My information is that, given the way that the Community budget is going, it will not apply. But I am prepared to be corrected by the Minister and to accept her assurances if she can give any.

As the hon. Member for Clwyd, North-West pointed out, in such debates the same performers often make similar speeches. There are sometimes different stories, anecdotes or nuances. But those speeches reflect the fact that during the past two years the Government have wasted their opportunities in the Community. At the end of those two years we are no nearer to solving the fundamental problem to which hon. Members constantly seek a solution. We are no nearer to controlling agriculture expenditure. Despite repeated assurances that there will be strict budgetary control, we keep hearing that that expenditure is out of control. We have seen no real action to tackle unemployment, let alone to reverse the growing tide of unemployment which Jacques Delors described at the beginning of his period of office.

We ask the House to oppose the Bill. A year ago the Government themselves said that such a Bill was unnecessary, irrelevant and would divert us from the real problems facing the country and the Community. I hope that the House will oppose the Bill tonight.