By David Williams
6 January 2010
The government has won the backing of Parliament for its controversial bill on reducing the fiscal deficit, despite heavy criticism from both sides of the House of Commons.
The Fiscal Responsibility Bill, which was announced in last month’s Queen’s Speech, had its second reading yesterday evening.
It sets out legally binding obligations for the government to halve the debt over four years, which Chancellor Alistair Darling said would protect the economy and maintain public services.
Conservative attempts to vote the Bill down failed. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has previously proposed setting up a new quango to oversee fiscal policy.
He called the bill the ‘biggest load of nonsense that this government have had the audacity to present to Parliament in this session,’ attacking in particular the lack of sanction it contains for those who break it.
Osborne suggested that Darling had nothing to do with the Bill, and that it was ‘dreamt up by the schools secretary [Ed Balls] and the Prime Minister when they were trying to think of something to say on the Andrew Marr Show.’
Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik pointed out that any future government that missed a target could simply go back to Parliament and change the law. He argued that the Bill amounted to ‘a policy statement rather than a binding objective.’
Darling countered that having rules on the statute book would help governments bring down the deficit. ‘Having to come back to the House to seek further legislation will be a discipline for future governments,’ he said.
But the Chancellor was attacked by Labour backbencher Frank Field, for his ‘ability to present such thin gruel to the House.’ Field mocked the government for its announcement that five-year-olds were to be given lessons on debt, saying ‘five-year-olds might suggest that the lessons could start here, rather than in the classroom.’
Field criticised both front benches for promising this week to spend new money, calling the Conservative commitment to ring-fence the health budget as ‘bizarre beyond belief.’ He warned: ‘In my view, if we do not cut enough and soon enough, we will not have a currency.’
6 January 2010
The government has won the backing of Parliament for its controversial bill on reducing the fiscal deficit, despite heavy criticism from both sides of the House of Commons.
The Fiscal Responsibility Bill, which was announced in last month’s Queen’s Speech, had its second reading yesterday evening.
It sets out legally binding obligations for the government to halve the debt over four years, which Chancellor Alistair Darling said would protect the economy and maintain public services.
Conservative attempts to vote the Bill down failed. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has previously proposed setting up a new quango to oversee fiscal policy.
He called the bill the ‘biggest load of nonsense that this government have had the audacity to present to Parliament in this session,’ attacking in particular the lack of sanction it contains for those who break it.
Osborne suggested that Darling had nothing to do with the Bill, and that it was ‘dreamt up by the schools secretary [Ed Balls] and the Prime Minister when they were trying to think of something to say on the Andrew Marr Show.’
Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik pointed out that any future government that missed a target could simply go back to Parliament and change the law. He argued that the Bill amounted to ‘a policy statement rather than a binding objective.’
Darling countered that having rules on the statute book would help governments bring down the deficit. ‘Having to come back to the House to seek further legislation will be a discipline for future governments,’ he said.
But the Chancellor was attacked by Labour backbencher Frank Field, for his ‘ability to present such thin gruel to the House.’ Field mocked the government for its announcement that five-year-olds were to be given lessons on debt, saying ‘five-year-olds might suggest that the lessons could start here, rather than in the classroom.’
Field criticised both front benches for promising this week to spend new money, calling the Conservative commitment to ring-fence the health budget as ‘bizarre beyond belief.’ He warned: ‘In my view, if we do not cut enough and soon enough, we will not have a currency.’
