I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. I also think that the Opposition should take to heart the comments of the junior shadow Health Minister—who shall remain a junior shadow Minister—who said of the speech of the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) a few weeks ago: You can't build a strategy on unclear thinking: that's the cart before the horse. We need clear thinking". He also said: We've got to go back to the drawing-board and no longer just scrabble around in the hope of winning short-term engagements". As my hon. Friend says, the Conservative party has a lot of thinking to do.

As for the Government's economic policy, we shall continue to steer a course of stability, to achieve the low inflation that we need to make possible the growth and employment creation currently happening in the United Kingdom. As I said, since the general election, more than 500,000 extra jobs have been created. There are now more people in employment in our country than at any time in our history.