Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Northern Ireland Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts
Wednesday 23rd March 2011

(13 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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I can do that, and the point I would make—the Energy and Climate Change Secretary would say exactly the same thing—is that what we have done is to create a fair playing field where that private investment can come forward. What we should not be doing is having unfair subsidies. We are making sure that on issues such as planning and carbon pricing the situation is very clear, so that nuclear, which is part of the energy mix in this country, can go on being part of the energy mix in our country.

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Portrait Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)
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Last Friday I visited Rawlins community college in my constituency and spoke to a very bright group of economics students. We discussed the fact that Governments cannot spend money they do not have. The students understood that; why does my right hon. Friend think the Opposition do not?

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I know the Opposition do not like to hear about the mess they left, but let me give them some new published information about the mess they left. This is what we inherited: we are 72nd on wastefulness of Government spending, behind Kazakhstan and Cambodia; 108th on Government debt, behind Malawi, Lesotho and, yes, you’ve guessed it, Libya; and—this is the best one—on the soundness of banks, we are 133rd. Our banks, under Labour, were less sound than those in Serbia, Estonia, Madagascar and Chad. That is the record we inherited from the Opposition, and we will not tire of reminding them.