Yes, but first may I tell the hon. Gentleman how grateful I am for his kind words? He knows that I am leaving the House voluntarily. In case it should prove that in the course of the next few weeks he does so involuntarily, may I, too, say that it has been nice doing business with him?

As for the size of the deficit, the hon. Gentleman has chosen to use the figures for goods. Our trade in services is of almost the same value as our trade in goods, and if we take the figures for services, and add the third component of the current account—account movements, dividends and incomes from foreign investments—we find that this country is pretty much in the black.

We have a very small deficit. According to Treasury estimates it looks as if the deficit for the past year, on a turnover of about $1 trillion on our current account, will be about £1 billion or £2 billion. That represents a remarkable performance. It reflects a huge burgeoning of activity on both the manufactured goods and the services front, and the results of huge investments abroad. Remember that those investments have taken place under the liberal policies that the Government have followed since 1979. The deficit is only 1.5 per cent. of GDP, and the deficit under a Labour Government was double that size.