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in the 1970s and early 1980s. Business investment remains high, and the latest CBI survey reported a sharp improvement in manufacturers' investment intentions.

United Kingdom manufacturing output is 25 per cent. higher than it was 10 years ago. United Kingdom manufactured exports have been increasing faster than world trade. After decades of decline, the United Kingdom's share of manufactured exports of developed nations has increased from 7.5 per cent. to almost 9 per cent. in the past five years. Those are the facts about the state of manufacturing industry, and industrial disputes are at the lowest for half a century. To answer the shadow Chancellor, this summer, the director general of the CBI said :

"Virtually everything associated with our manufacturing base is better than it was in the era of Government interference, lost orders, strikes and roaring inflation."

No prizes for guessing when that was. It was when the industrial policies of the Labour party were being pursued, to our damage, in the 1970s.

Government spending of more than £2.6 billion in 1992-93 on enterprise and vocational education is two and a half times more in real terms than in 1978-79. Companies are spending record sums of some £20 billion on training per year, and the CBI survey shows an increase in the year ahead, with more than 80 per cent. of manufacturers expecting to spend as much or more on training in the next 12 months. That is what the right hon. and learned Member for Monklands, East means by cuts.

Almost 1 million people will be helped back to work in the coming year by employment and training programmes. We need to take no lectures from Labour Members. I remind them that we are spending two and a half times as much on training and enterprise as they did. When they left office, they were training 6,000 young people. This year, we shall train more than 250,000. If the right hon. and learned Member for Monklands, East were concerned about employment and training, he would be prepared to condemn the TUC boycott of the employment action, youth training and TEC programmes. He has been asked before : will he now do so?

It is no wonder that the right hon. and learned Member for Monklands, East does not want to hear the facts about Government spending on science and technology. The autumn statement shows that spending on science and technology in 1992-93 will be almost £6 billion. That is substantial investment in science and technology. I shall take no lessons from the right hon. and learned Gentleman on education, because the Government's record has been extremely good. In the past 12 years, there has been a record increase in spending per pupil--up 42 per cent. in schools. His comparisons with the city technology colleges did not bear water. More young people are staying on after 16 than ever before. More and more are getting good grades in GCSE and A-levels. Above all, our record on the numbers entering higher education, universities and polytechnics is outstandingly good--one out of eight of the relevant age group in 1979, one out of four now. Not only are numbers increasing every year but most students qualify in universities and polytechnics, whereas in other countries that have similar numbers entering higher education there is a much higher wastage rate.

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The results of our education reforms and improvements in the 1980s are being shown by the way in which our young people are leaving higher education with qualifications. One in four is very much better than before.

The Opposition cannot add up. They make promises that they have no way of sustaining. They have no commitment to the control of inflation. Their approach to European matters involves policies that are not at all in the interests of British industry. The Government's record is outstandingly good. The Queen's Speech will carry it forward and, when the time comes, I am certain that the electorate will choose our policies.

Question put, That the amendment be made :

The House divided : Ayes 193, Noes 323.

Division No. 2] [10 pm

AYES

Abbott, Ms Diane

Adams, Mrs Irene (Paisley, N.)

Allen, Graham

Alton, David

Archer, Rt Hon Peter

Ashdown, Rt Hon Paddy

Ashley, Rt Hon Jack

Ashton, Joe

Banks, Tony (Newham NW)

Barnes, Harry (Derbyshire NE)

Barnes, Mrs Rosie (Greenwich)

Beckett, Margaret

Beith, A. J.

Bellotti, David

Benn, Rt Hon Tony

Bennett, A. F. (D'nt'n & R'dish)

Bermingham, Gerald

Bidwell, Sydney

Blair, Tony

Boateng, Paul

Bradley, Keith

Brown, Gordon (D'mline E)

Brown, Ron (Edinburgh Leith)

Caborn, Richard

Callaghan, Jim

Campbell, Menzies (Fife NE)

Campbell-Savours, D. N.

Canavan, Dennis

Carr, Michael

Cartwright, John

Clarke, Tom (Monklands W)

Cohen, Harry

Corbett, Robin

Corbyn, Jeremy

Cox, Tom

Crowther, Stan

Cryer, Bob

Cunningham, Dr John

Darling, Alistair

Davies, Rt Hon Denzil (Llanelli)

Davies, Ron (Caerphilly)

Davis, Terry (B'ham Hodge H'l)

Dixon, Don

Dobson, Frank

Duffy, Sir A. E. P.

Dunnachie, Jimmy

Dunwoody, Hon Mrs Gwyneth

Eadie, Alexander

Edwards, Huw

Evans, John (St Helens N)

Ewing, Mrs Margaret (Moray)

Faulds, Andrew

Fearn, Ronald

Field, Frank (Birkenhead)

Fields, Terry (L'pool B G'n)

Fisher, Mark

Flannery, Martin

Flynn, Paul

Foot, Rt Hon Michael

Foster, Derek

Foulkes, George

Fraser, John

Galloway, George

Garrett, John (Norwich South)

Garrett, Ted (Wallsend)

Gilbert, Rt Hon Dr John

Godman, Dr Norman A.

Golding, Mrs Llin

Gordon, Mildred

Gould, Bryan

Graham, Thomas

Grant, Bernie (Tottenham)

Griffiths, Nigel (Edinburgh S)

Griffiths, Win (Bridgend)

Grocott, Bruce

Hain, Peter

Harman, Ms Harriet

Haynes, Frank

Heal, Mrs Sylvia

Healey, Rt Hon Denis

Henderson, Doug

Hinchliffe, David

Hoey, Kate (Vauxhall)

Hogg, N. (C'nauld & Kilsyth)

Home Robertson, John

Howell, Rt Hon D. (S'heath)

Howells, Geraint

Howells, Dr. Kim (Pontypridd)

Hoyle, Doug

Hughes, John (Coventry NE)

Hughes, Roy (Newport E)

Hughes, Simon (Southwark)

Hume, John

Ingram, Adam

Johnston, Sir Russell

Jones, Barry (Alyn & Deeside)

Jones, Martyn (Clwyd S W)

Kaufman, Rt Hon Gerald

Kennedy, Charles

Kilfoyle, Peter

Kinnock, Rt Hon Neil

Kirkwood, Archy

Lamond, James

Leadbitter, Ted

Leighton, Ron

Lestor, Joan (Eccles)

Lewis, Terry

Litherland, Robert

Livingstone, Ken

Livsey, Richard

Lloyd, Tony (Stretford)

Loyden, Eddie

McAllion, John

McAvoy, Thomas

McGrady, Eddie

McKay, Allen (Barnsley West)

McKelvey, William

McLeish, Henry

Maclennan, Robert

McMaster, Gordon

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