Contributions
607 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexI am sure that those who forecast a figure of zero for GDP in February and then found out it was 0.2% might be a little cheered up this morning. On other reasons to be cheerful,…11 Apr 2019HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexI absolutely agree with the first part of the noble Lord’s question. I am sure it is noted on his Front Bench. We have been clear that we believe the best way forward for…11 Apr 2019HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexI do not dispute that there are headwinds and that uncertainty is bad for business, which is why we want to resolve matters and move forward. However, one of the points about the…11 Apr 2019HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexGiven that it is hard enough to answer for the UK Government in your Lordships’ House, I will not attempt to answer for other Governments. However, I believe that the resilience…11 Apr 2019HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexIt is absolutely true that there are challenges in the services sector, which is crucially important to us. That is why a lot of the uncertainty that I referred to earlier, in my…11 Apr 2019HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexI agree that the uncertainty needs to end. However, the message from the numbers, which my noble friend Lord Borwick began by mentioning, is that whatever the difficulties we have…11 Apr 2019HANSARDEconomy: Purchasing Managers’ IndexThe people voted to leave in 2016. Since then, we have seen almost 1 million jobs added to the economy. We saw £48 billion of foreign direct investment into the UK last year with…11 Apr 2019HANSARDUK Convergence ProgrammeThe accusation was made that the Government were somehow not addressing the issue of Brexit. Responding on behalf of the Government—which I am entitled to do—we believe we have…09 Apr 2019HANSARDUK Convergence ProgrammeI thought it was a J curve; I think the J curve is non-inflationary employment growth, and the Laffer curve might be the other one. However, I will take a break there in case I am…09 Apr 2019HANSARDUK Convergence ProgrammeI am very happy to put it in writing. Also, should the noble Lord be familiar with anyone serving on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, I am quite sure they…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtMy Lords, as a result of the Government’s balanced approach we have been able to reduce debt while supporting public services, investing in the economy and infrastructure, and…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtI am very happy to do that, and of course my noble friend will be aware that 32 million people have just enjoyed a tax cut as the tax thresholds were raised. There is a balance;…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtIf the noble Lord is arguing that we should have gone further and faster in reducing the debt, he is somewhat at odds with his leader down the other end of the Corridor, who has…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtCertainly, the Government see merit in repaying debt; we pay interest rates of about £50 billion a year on debt, so there is a good rationale for trying to do that. However, we…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtMy noble friend follows these matters very closely. We are currently under 85%, with a target to go down to 73%. France is at 98.7% and I think Italy is at 131.1%, but we still…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtI do not see how one can take it out of that figure. If it is public expenditure on infrastructure, it is government debt, so we need to reflect that in the numbers.09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtObviously, there will be issues, which will be addressed in the spending review. Simon Stevens made that proposal about what is needed for the NHS, £20 billion—I think—was…09 Apr 2019HANSARDGovernment DebtThis is an historic problem that we have debated many times in this House. Because we are a heavily services-oriented economy it is difficult to capture all the value. We set up…09 Apr 2019HANSARDUK Convergence ProgrammeThat this House approves, for the purposes of section 5 of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993, the Government’s assessment of the medium term economic and fiscal…09 Apr 2019HANSARDUK Convergence ProgrammeMy Lords, the Government have a legal requirement to give the European Commission an update of the UK’s economic and budgetary position as part of our convergence programme. Given…09 Apr 2019