"I agree with my hon. Friend; unemployment already stands at 2.67 million, and youth unemployment is at a record level.
Despite the Chancellor’s predictions a year ago, things have turned out very differently in the real world. As we enter spring 2012, it is clear that the British economy is …..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"I completely agree with my hon. Friend, and I shall come to the point a little later.
To put the tax reductions for top-rate earners in context, we need to understand that these are people who earn £2,900 a week—that is right, each week. That is more than an average …..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"Does my hon. Friend agree with The Guardian, which said this morning that the Liberals will live to regret the fact that they have moved so far away in principle from the Lloyd George Budget of 1909?..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"Is it not also the case that the current use of monetary policy to drive growth—quantitative easing—is driving the markets but not necessarily the growth that this country needs?..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"Will the hon. Gentleman at least acknowledge that a significant proportion of the private sector jobs created are part-time and in that sense are doing much less than he suggests to drive growth in the economy?..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"Will the hon. Gentleman not at least acknowledge, as my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain) said earlier, that the biggest beneficiaries of the increase in the tax allowance will be higher-income earners, not the lowest-income earners?..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"Is not the Chancellor’s credit easing scheme an admission that his earlier deal—the Merlin deal—has completely and utterly failed?..." Angela Smith - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is making a very strong case against the Government’s economic policy. Does he agree with Will Hutton’s comments in The Observer on Sunday? He said that the Chancellor
“is operating within a framework that permits no vision for how the British economy can be re-energised and reimagined.”..." Angela Smith - View Speech