EU: Fiscal Compact Treaty

Debate between Lord Howe of Aberavon and Lord Sassoon

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I think that my noble friends Lord Howell and Lord Strathclyde have given very good answers to that question in the past and there is nothing I need to add.

[Lord Howe of Aberavon]

Will my noble friend take the opportunity of advising our right honourable friend the Prime Minister that in practical terms this is a setting in which the Prime Minister might be well judged to pay a little more respect to the advice of the Chancellor of the Exchequer than to that of the Foreign Secretary?

Comprehensive Spending Review

Debate between Lord Howe of Aberavon and Lord Sassoon

Wednesday 20th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howe of Aberavon]

My Lords, my question is: will it not remain essential for months and indeed years ahead to have a similar economic discipline to that being imposed so far in this comprehensive spending review? Also, given the many features with which the Chancellor has dealt today, is not this review absolutely inescapable? It is not merely a comprehensive spending review but a continuous spending review, to which the party opposite has offered no alternative policy but in which the policy of the Government has been clearly set out comprehensively and with courage.

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble and learned friend Lord Howe of Aberavon for reminding us of the confidence that we can have in the tough decisions that this Government have taken. He was the architect of a similarly bold, tough and successful consolidation of the public finances in the early 1980s. This is indeed an important lesson for us. I agree with him that this must be driven through in the way in which he describes. He points out that the Opposition have provided no alternative policies, but it is worse than that: I understand that, when listening to my right honourable friend’s Statement in the Chamber, the shadow Chancellor sent out an e-mail in his name—I do not know how he did it—asking the public or whomever he was e-mailing for any ideas so that the Opposition could formulate an alternative policy. We look forward to hearing the outcome.