Part of Amendment of the Law – in the House of Commons at 9:41 pm on 18 March 2008.
What we have seen is the Labour party's strong commitment to working with our European partners. There have also been improvements in the long-term economic performance of the country. The right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe wanted to argue that Britain was somehow the worst placed country in the entire world to deal with the global economic challenges that face us, and as I have said, if he is drawing on his experience in government, one can understand why he came to that conclusion. Certainly, it is true that in the early 1980s and the early '90s Britain was first into recession and slow-down and last out, and had a far deeper recession than other countries across the world.