Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 15 November 2005.
Alistair Darling
The Secretary of State for Scotland, The Secretary of State for Transport
2:30,
15 November 2005
I certainly do not regard the concept of full employment as utopian, but when our right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the exchequer said that one of his ambitions was to secure full employment, he was criticised by the Conservatives and other parties. The fact that many people are in work, which is bringing them opportunities of which they could only have dreamt years ago, is a tribute to the management of the economy. We intend to continue those policies, because that is the best thing to do for the benefit of Scotland and, indeed, the whole country.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
