Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 March 2001.
Oliver Letwin
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
12:00,
1 March 2001
As the Chief Secretary and the Chancellor are so keen to take comments as Budget representations, will they take the remarks of Mr. Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, as a Budget representation, when he states:
As a taxpayer, I could not stomach the way in which public money was being squandered"?
Do they agree with Mr. Woodhead that the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have
presided over a set of initiatives that has wasted taxpayers' money, distracted teachers from their real responsibilities and encapsulated the worst of the discredited ideology that has done so much damage since the 1960s"?
Do they agree that the Government have not delivered, and that
a generation of children has been betrayed"?
The Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.