John McDonnell
John Redwood's interventions in the House on Europe and the economy
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham): Yesterday, the Prime Minister called for anearly debate on the euro. When will the Leader of the House accede to thatwise and excellent request, and when will the Government tell the Housetheir preferred entry rate of the pound against the euro?
Mr. Cook: Even as I rise, I can see television screens all over the CityofLondon switching on to our exchanges. The right hon. Gentleman has beenherelong enough to know that we never comment on currency movements. When thePrime Minister requests a debate, I shall be happy to arrange it.
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham): When the Government imposed their bigwindfalllicence fee on the telecommunications industry-a very big one-off tax-Iwarned that it would lead to job losses and slashes in the investmentprogrammes of our lead sector. The Government said it would not. Will theMinister now apologise and explain what went wrong?
Dawn Primarolo: The right hon. Gentleman has made many forecasts thatturnedout to be wrong. If there is a list of apologies that need to be made totheHouse, we may be here for a long time hearing members of the lastGovernmentapologise for all their errors.
Mr. Redwood: If everything is so stable and well run, why have we had boomand bust in the stock market and in the telecom and high-tech industriesover the past five years?
Ruth Kelly: It is clear that stock markets across the industrialised worldhave fallen, or does the right hon. Gentleman believe that the UK stockmarket has been especially badly affected? The causes have been theuncertainty of the world economic climate and the vulnerability ofcorporateprofitability which, as the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downspointedout, has resulted from the recent Enron and WorldCom events.
