Lord Eatwell: My Lords, what contingency has the Treasury made for repaying to the Bank of England the revenues it currently receives should the Bank incur a loss on its bond holdings?
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, the noble Lord has introduced the issue of avoidance. What is the Treasury’s estimate of the loss of revenue due to bonuses and other payments being held back after the Chancellor provided his friends with such an easy means of tax avoidance by pre-announcing their top-rate tax cut?
Lord Eatwell: I am grateful to the noble Lord for correcting any verbal infelicities that may have occurred. I wonder if he has noticed that the significant government cuts in expenditure have not resulted in a falling deficit for the past two years. In the same way, an expenditure programme targeted on worthwhile activities that stimulated a flow of tax returns would result in a reduction in the deficit....
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Deighton, for introducing this part of the debate on the gracious Speech. If only all the good news that he spoke of had some connection with economic reality. Like all noble Lords, I look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox. Many noble Lords may not know that she is an accomplished actress. It was surely no...
Lord Eatwell: Gross borrowing could be increased so that net borrowing would fall. That is our strategy. Again, what is left of these four pillars is something that the Opposition perhaps do not understand. The noble Lord, Lord Deighton, who has a good economics degree, understands it very well. What is left of the four pillars of the Government's strategy? Monetary activism that does not work, a banking...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, the noble Lord has rather ably misrepresented what I said. I said that the economy was growing at 2%, which it was, and that the 2% growth would lead to a fall in the deficit, which it did. I did not say that at the time there was a need to increase the deficit. What happened was the destruction of business confidence by the foolish remarks of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer-the...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I can maybe help the noble Baroness by confessing, "It was me that done it". The objective at the time was to urge the then Government of John Major-Sir John Major as he is now-to make a report on the convergence procedure. The first time the debate took place, they elected not to do that but simply to send in the Budget report instead. I complained mightily, but of course to no...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Newby, made clear, the Government are required by the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 to submit an assessment of the UK's convergence programme towards the economic structure of the eurozone. This requirement is perhaps more apt this year than in past years. On the broadest economic assessment, the Government's convergence programme has been a great...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I am grateful for the corrections which the noble Lord has made to the amendment which I put down yesterday, and to the commitment that the review will be done within eight months. There was another change that he did not cover. The term of art, "statements of requirement", which refers to the level of physical ability that the fire service and police must attain, was changed to...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I beg to move the manuscript amendment on the Marshalled List. We were told last night-that is to say, at the last minute-that the Government intended to assert financial privilege over our attempt to achieve fairness for the members of the Defence Fire and Rescue Service and the Ministry of Defence Police. We have learnt that the Government know they have lost the argument when...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, given that interest rates have been at record lows for three years and that liquidity is high, with no notable impact on the overall rate of growth, will the Minister tell us exactly what the mechanism is by which this greater monetary activism will stimulate growth?
Lord Eatwell: This side totally support the remarks just made by the noble Lord, Lord Higgins.
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for introducing this debate on the Budget Statement. He demonstrated that it was not a boring Budget. Indeed, the Budget was-let us say-revelatory. It revealed that, try as you might, you cannot spin economic failure. Two weeks ago the Prime Minister declared that, "there are signs that our plan is beginning to work". The reality is that the economy...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, from what the noble Lord has said, the Treasury has clearly been content with the policy pursued by the Monetary Policy Committee over the past three years. Is the noble Lord also content with the impact of that policy on pensioners' annuities?
Lord Eatwell: The noble Lord has made much in his Answer of the proportion of taxation paid by the highest earners. Is not the reason for this that their gross incomes are excessively high compared to those of others in our society?
Lord Eatwell: Will the noble Lord explain why the Government are so allergic to the financial transaction tax, which is to be levied at less than 1% of the value of transactions and by many countries, whereas we are quite happy to have stamp duty levied on transactions at 5%, which is effective only here in the UK?
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, given that the EU budget is being reduced in real terms, can the noble Lord tell us what the consequential reductions are in expenditure in the UK?
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, could the Minister tell the House whether it is better to borrow to fund the fiscal costs of negligible growth or to fund the expansion in investment and growth?
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for explaining the content of these essentially technical amendments. I particularly welcome the approach, which is in accord with the recommendation of my noble friend Lord Hutton. I have but one question of the noble Lord, and that is why his remarks were not prefaced by an apology to the House for having put down these amendments as late as 5 pm...
Lord Eatwell: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for introducing these amendments, and for reacting as he promised on Report to the issues raised there by me and my noble friend Lord Whitty. His speech was slightly imperfectly drafted as it referred on several occasions to the unlikelihood of negative growth. In fact under this coalition Government negative growth has become an all too common...