It is also the last Question Time for my hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (Mr. Hardy) and we should wish him well in his retirement after his many years of service to the House. May I also associate myself with the remarks of the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Mr. Garnier)? It is the last appearance of the Minister for Trade, who has been an eloquent spokesman and defender of our interests. I remember a half-hour speech that he made recently without a note and while suffering from a cold. That was testimony to his perseverance and persistence in our interests.

In relation to our £139 billion-worth of exports and to the east midlands, as we had some refreshing honesty from a former Minister with responsibility for transport about how defective our road building programme was, can the Minister explain with the same refreshing honesty why we have had a trade deficit since 1983 on our manufactured goods and why our deficit last year was £12.5 billion—£1 billion a month? Can he explain how that has come about in the past 13 years of a Tory Government?