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Mr. Garnier: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Tyler: No. There is limited time and I want to make progress towards the substance of the debate.
There are important differences between the Labour Government of 1974 and the current Government. The Government should claim without apology that their cross-party consultation on constitutional reform has been a success. I regret that such consultation has not extended to other policy matters.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Michael J. Martin):
Order. The hon. Gentleman has mentioned economic policy; he should stick to that tonight. If he considers other subjects, I shall have to call him to order.
Mr. Tyler:
I am grateful for that guidance. Other hon. Members have related subjects such as support for single mothers, agriculture, and trade--about which the right hon. Member for Coatbridge and Chryston (Mr. Clarke) spoke--to the economy. I propose to do that as well.
Liberal Democrat Members were pleased when the Government poached our policy on the independence of the Bank of England. The Chancellor opposed that central economic policy when in opposition, yet it was taken up as part of the new Government's policy. We do not mind our clothes being stolen in that way. However, the Government's timidity in some parts of their economic policy has returned to haunt them. That is evident in their attitude to the role of the privatised utilities in the national economy.
In the last Parliament, my predecessor as transport spokesman and I tried to persuade Labour party spokesmen that, if the Conservatives insisted on privatising Railtrack, it was vital, for economic as well as other reasons, that the Labour party should be committed to buying back a controlling interest of 51 per cent., with no profit and a bond scheme. If that had happened, Railtrack would probably not have been sold and the crazy profiteering that we have witnessed would not have happened. We argued on grounds of safety, investment and economic co-ordination. Unfortunately, the Labour party was so scared of the nationalisation tag that it did not respond, and the Government did not put in place the broad-based economic strategy that they should have devised. In the aftermath of Paddington, the Deputy Prime Minister is probably not the only member of the Labour party who regrets not having the courage of our convictions.
There were signs early in the Parliament that Ministers were listening. Some would complain that they listened to the wrong people--middle England tax cutters rather than the old, the disabled and the excluded. However, despite their large majority, they at least pretended that they were not omniscient as well as omnipotent. We may worry that they took the wrong message from their listening, but at least they seemed to be trying to identify new, important priorities in economic policy and to leave the insulated bunker of their Tory predecessors. It was unfortunate that, during their first two years in office, they failed to break out of the spending straitjacket that they inherited in the Treasury cupboard.
We are now halfway through the Parliament. In its early stages, there was a real attempt to introduce a different sort of government, especially in economic policy. The Prime Minister seemed genuinely to favour a pluralist approach rather the sterile, "my party, right or wrong" attitude of the past. There has been an interesting consensus in the Chamber this evening on the role of the
World Trade Organisation and our objectives for the Seattle talks next week, and on the importance of the euro, to which the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Mr. Sheldon) referred earlier. I welcome that. It is important that we can agree on objectives and major policy issues across the Chamber. That is what Parliament should be about. Sadly, there are signs that we may slip back to the aggressive, confrontational, Punch and Judy politics to which we became accustomed in the previous 25 years.
Parts of the legislative programme seem designed more to appeal to the Labour party's vested interests than to modernise our economy and communities for the 21st century. I do not apologise for referring to the deepening crisis in the countryside, mentioned by the right hon. Member for South Norfolk (Mr. MacGregor). It is important that every part of the economy--urban and rural--fulfils its potential. It is depressing that the only measures that will affect the countryside are irrelevant to the deep-seated crisis that the whole rural economy suffers. The measures on the right to roam, the pesticide tax and foxhunting are not vital. Anyone who knows what goes on in the countryside must recognise that. Those issues are not central to addressing the calamity that has befallen employment and businesses in the countryside.
One of the few brighter spots in the continuing decline of the rural economy is the belated recognition that it is an essential, integral part of the national economy. The contribution of the right hon. Member for South Norfolk, and his exchanges with the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East (Sir T. Taylor), referred to that. The previous Government failed to respond to our forecast that some parts of agriculture could not survive if the playing field remained so uneven, and our competitors on the continent and elsewhere continued to have such a huge advantage in balance of trade. That applies especially to pork and pigmeat products. I gave that warning in the last Parliament and Conservative Ministers ignored it. Imports of pigmeat products are now at record levels. The Meat and Livestock Commission recently announced an increase of 40 per cent. in ham imports in the first six months of this year. As everyone knows, overseas suppliers do not insist on the same public health and animal welfare standards as Britain. The right hon. Member for South Norfolk was right to identify that major crisis in the economy.
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. The hon. Gentleman is considering agricultural matters when our debate is on the economy. He must confine his speech to the economy.
Mr. Tyler:
I acknowledge what you say, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but the right hon. Member for South Norfolk talked about agriculture as an issue that affects the economy. I am sure that you agree that the rural economy is an important component of the national economy. If farmers in my constituency and in that of the right hon. Member for South Norfolk--
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. The hon. Gentleman knows that I came to the Chair not long ago. I cannot be held responsible for the words of hon. Members when I was not in the Chair. I suggest to the hon. Gentleman that
Mr. Tyler:
I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I hope that, with equal liberal latitude, you will recognise that there have been interventions in my speech.
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. I hope that the hon. Gentleman does not refer to my interventions because there is no injury time for those.
Mr. Tyler:
I do not know how to react to that one, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
I want to emphasise that massive and devastating effects on the balance of trade resulting from a big increase in food imports to this country have major economic implications, and anybody who has watched what has been happening to the food industry and agricultural production must recognise that that is a real threat. The balance of trade and the balance of payments are important to the future health of our economy, but I do not want to labour the point.
I want to emphasise the importance of the immediate economic effect of those trends on local economies in sensitive parts of the country. Unfortunately, such areas--Northern Ireland, rural Scotland outside the central belt, the Pennines and mid-west of England and my own county of Cornwall and the south-west, for example--tend to have high unemployment and do not have wide opportunities for economic diversification. Those businesses that are supplying and supplied by agriculture and horticulture are still suffering the after-effects of the BSE crisis, which has also had a major effect on the health of the national economy.
Areas that have already been identified as being in need of economic support--they have objective 1 or objective 2 status under the new European Union structural funds--will need to know soon whether the Government are able to ensure matching funding so that they can take up that support. Without that guarantee, the new programme could fail as badly as the old objective 5b process has under the present regime.
If our national economy is to operate at its optimum level of activity and sustained growth, each sector and each geographical area must be enabled to perform to its full potential. Keeping the lid on the inflationary pressures in the south-east--hon. Members may have seen the report in tonight's Evening Standard that house prices in London are going through the roof--simply cannot be allowed to divert attention from the real problems of many areas of the country outside London and the south-east. If we have a macro-economic policy that does not recognise the need for diversification of the economic approach to those issues, some of the more remote parts of Britain will have great difficulty in escaping further recession.
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