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Mr. McCartney: Just a second. I shall give way to the hon. Gentleman, but I want to finish this point. I knew that Conservative Members would not be able to contain themselves, and that their anti-Europeanism would well up inside them. A few cracks are appearing in their facades and in their view about business succeeding in Europe.
The CBI "Fit for the Future" campaign is critically important to us. It aims to help business to learn about and adopt more efficient and effective business practices used by others in the United Kingdom and beyond. The campaign's mission is to achieve an increase in the number of companies engaged in the transfer of best practice. That will be done by promoting success and linking people
with experience with people who want to learn, working through a network of partners and champions, and signposting valuable sources of information and advice. This is a simple and comprehensive approach in the drive towards achieving a step change in UK competitiveness.To date, 35 partner organisations--such as trade associations--and 49 leading business champions have signed up to the campaign.
Mr. Duncan:
I know that the Minister is well-equipped to roll over from time to time, but will he answer the question? Does he believe that the withholding tax would or would not harm business?
Mr. McCartney:
The hon. Gentleman knows that, from the Prime Minister and the Chancellor downwards, this Government will do nothing to allow the European Union, or anyone else, to damage UK business in the City. I cannot be straighter than that. The hon. Gentleman wants to acquiesce in, and agree with, his party's views, and to treat the issue as an Aunt Sally. In fact, over the past 20 years the only giving way in terms of taxation and European issues has been done by a Conservative Government.
Mr. David Davis:
My hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Duncan) will know the position with regard to the withholding tax. Essentially, the Europeans have given the British Chancellor an opportunity to generate proposals that will be in the interests of the financial markets in Europe, and will protect British jobs. We are waiting for our Chancellor to present those proposals. He reserves the right to use the veto if necessary, in order to protect Britain in the endgame. I really do not see the problem that the Labour party is engendering.
Mr. McCartney:
The right hon. Gentleman is struggling. There is no evidence, in this or any other context, that the Government are other than four-square committed to the interests of the United Kingdom.
This Government are listened to in Europe. No one listened to the Conservative Government. Even if anyone had wanted to listen, the Conservative Government were never there. They had an empty-chair strategy. They would turn up, sign in and get on to the plane back to Britain. Then they would sit in a huff in their ministerial offices while decisions about Britain's future and a range of other matters were made. They had no positive input at all. We will take no lessons from the Conservatives about the principles of Europe, the strategy of negotiation or how this country's interests are defended in Europe. They scored nought out of 10 each time on all those issues, and so far today they have conveyed no sense of urgency in regard to the development of a policy in opposition.
Mr. Bercow:
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. McCartney:
The hon. Gentleman should not dive in too quickly. He has had numerous opportunities to inject at least a smattering of intellectual activity into the debate. I may have to stay around to establish whether there is even a chink of light on the Conservative Benches, and whether the Opposition have any sense of direction. I fear that they have not.
Does the hon. Gentleman still want me to give way?
Mr. Bercow:
When I listen to the Minister's speeches, I always feel that he is pricking himself with a needle. It would be much easier if he would answer questions directly, rather than giving a long, roundabout, circumlocutory response to my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Duncan). If he will not consent to any tax measure from the European Union that is injurious to British business, will he just confirm that any such injurious measure will be vetoed, vetoed--for the third time--vetoed?
Mr. McCartney:
I do not know how many times I have to tell the hon. Gentleman that the Chancellor has already successfully negotiated with our European colleagues on proposals to tackle tax evasion and protect the legitimate interests of the British financial markets. We are ahead of the game. The hon. Gentleman is talking about an old agenda. The agenda has moved on, and, as I keep saying, at last the country has a Government to whom our European colleagues listen with respect. The Chancellor's proposals are moving the agenda further forward, and there is no possibility that our financial interests will be dealt with other than in a rigorously supportive way. The hon. Gentleman has demonstrated again that the Conservatives are not just behind the game, but out of the game. His is an old party with old policies to which no one will listen.
I hope that the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton will give us some inkling of whether the Opposition have learned from their 18 long years in government, during which they dismantled the British economy. Do they recognise that, over that time, tremendous errors were made in macro-economic policy? Do they realise how much social dislocation they caused through their lack of investment in training and research and development, and their failure to involve educational establishments with the business community? Throughout the sphere of innovation and enterprise, the last Government were found wanting.
Mr. John Butterfill (Bournemouth, West):
Will the Minister give way?
Mr. McCartney:
The hon. Gentleman should wait a while. He should listen to the debate. He has only been present for about 15 seconds. Well, perhaps 30 seconds. I am prone to exaggeration. [Interruption.] I knew that would get them going. The Conservatives only wake up when we make a joke. When the serious stuff starts, they switch off.
The Department of Trade and Industry has worked closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to create the national endowment for science, technology and the arts. NESTA will shortly announce details of its policies and programmes to support talented and enterprising individuals in science and technology, as well as the arts.
During their first two years in office, the Government have gone a long way towards ending the poverty of ambition that was prevalent under the Tories. We have gone a long way towards improving our science base, and giving people both the incentives to take risks and the rewards for taking them. We realise that there is much
more to be done if United Kingdom companies are to compete in the new knowledge-driven economy, but I believe that the policies that I have outlined will help our companies to succeed at home and abroad.
This morning we shall hear a bit more of the old Tory boom and bust, but we should always remember one thing: at the next general election, the Tories will be an out-of-Europe, out-of-a-job party. They will lay to rest 3.5 million jobs in Britain because of their policies in respect of the business community. Every worker in Britain should understand that the Government's attitude to Europe and the business community puts at risk all those 3.5 million jobs, and our home market.
Mr. Alan Duncan (Rutland and Melton):
I acknowledge with gratitude the warm welcome extended to me by the Minister. Let me also say on behalf of us all that it is a pleasure to see him fit and well again, and in rumbustious and entertaining form. Long may that continue. The Minister is clearly enjoying his brief, and Conservative Members will enjoy sparring with him over the coming months.
If there is one thing on which the Minister and I agree, it is that the world is really run by those who are under 5 ft 6. I think that my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) will agree with that. I am sorry that I do not have the Minister's mellifluous Scottish accent; I am afraid that my family lost that a generation ago. I shall have to be upskilled to get it back.
I look forward to carrying out my own brief. Perhaps I should adhere to the traditions of the House, and begin by making a full declaration of my interests. They are all registered, but the modern rules are a minefield. I want to make it absolutely clear to the Minister and the House that I shall not speak on matters pertaining to the motor industry, as I retain a shareholding in a Land Rover franchise overseas. I have some interests in oil and telecommunications, also overseas. Although I think that they have no bearing whatever on United Kingdom policy, I shall declare--indeed, over-declare--them as necessary.
I am also a non-executive director of a United Kingdom-based investment fund--a private venture capital fund that will concentrate on high-tech infant companies. In as much as any declaration is required on that, I shall endeavour to comply with the rules of the House to the highest possible standard.
Just a moment ago, I was thinking that it was exactly 20 years ago that I started seeking my first permanent job, on leaving university. I joined Shell, a big and successful--massive--Anglo-Dutch corporate concern. Looking back to 20 years ago, one can but realise that, in the intervening years, much has happened in our economy. I am pleased to say that much has happened in the Labour party, too.
In 1979--20 years ago--when the Conservative Government first took over, the United Kingdom was a very sick economy; we were regarded as the sick man of Europe. Quite simply, we were going down the plug-hole. Trade unions were seen to be dominant and overpowerful, and strikes were reported daily in our newspapers and on television. United Kingdom inflation was probably the highest in Europe, touching 27 per cent. Amidst all that macroeconomic disaster, we saw the stifling of enterprise and the crushing of innovation.
The human spirit, however, endured. Now, we realise and appreciate much more clearly that the individual qualities of enterprise and innovation are the engine of prosperity, and that they are the justification of the capitalism that harnesses private endeavour for the public good. It took a Conservative Government more than 18 years to give enterprise and innovation the freedom that they needed to flourish.
I acknowledge, however, that the Labour party has also changed. It has been forced to admit that the previous Government were right, and that it was wrong. Indeed, the Labour party has adopted much of our language--the language of enterprise, innovation and of business. No one can deny that Labour says many of the rights things. At best, however, Labour is only halfway there: although it may have learned its lines, it does not really understand the meaning of the lines it utters.
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