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Madam Speaker: Order. We have all had our fun; the House must now settle down.

The Prime Minister: Violent crime, however, is rising. We need more police; we will get them. We need new ways in which to tackle drugs; we will get those too. We need tougher action against drug dealers; we are legislating against them.

In all those areas, we should recognise the immense efforts of millions of public servants--school teachers, police, NHS staff and civil servants--because their work makes our country richer.

We are a Government committed to social justice. Thanks in part to the minimum wage, the working families tax credit and the biggest-ever rise in child benefit--[Interruption.] Opposition Members do not want to hear the facts. [Hon. Members: Hear, hear! Here's John; come on, John."] Perhaps the Opposition will cheer this. By the end of the current Parliament, 1.2 million children will be lifted out of poverty. But there is still a long way to go before we can achieve our goal of ending child poverty altogether.

I am well aware of the focus on the 75p rise in the basic state pension. If that was all that the Government had done for pensioners, people would have every right to be angry; but it is not. We chose, deliberately, to get most help to the poorest, through the new minimum income guarantee. About 2 million pensioners have gained, some considerably, by around £15 to £18 per week. We have abolished eye test charges. We have introduced the winter allowance, which now stands at £150. We have given free television licences to pensioners aged 75 and over. In total, an extra £6.5 billion will be spent on pensioners during the current Parliament-- £6.5 billion above what the last Government planned. Again, however, I am the first to say that there is more to be done, and step by step, as the country can afford it, we will do it.

This year also saw the best inward investment figures in our country's history. Around the world, people are seeing the strong economic fundamentals that exist in Britain. They see a good business environment, described recently by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the second best in the world.

This Government are committed to a positive and constructive role in Europe. At the Lisbon summit, we helped to set a new economic course for Europe. Most recently, the Chancellor of the Exchequer turned around the entire debate on tax in Europe. We are leading the debate in Europe on defence. We will maintain a policy on the euro that is designed in our national economic interest, and is good for British jobs, British industry and British investment.

There are many other areas in which we can chart progress. Hand guns are banned. Land mines are banned. Hereditary peers are at last on their way out. There are

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paid holidays for the first time. As for the arts, funding is increasing, quality is improving, and our international reputation is a credit to Britain. When they want it, employees have the right to be represented by a trade union. We are starting to cancel third-world debt. The strategic defence review is allowing Britain to count for more in the world.

The annual report shows that 104 of our 177 manifesto commitments have been met, that 71 are on course, and that two are not timetabled. Of course there is more to do. We have been in government for three years. There are 1 million more in work, true, but many thousands of jobs are still lost as a result of industrial change. We now have the best-ever results in our primary schools, true, but our secondary schools are still nowhere near the level of the best in the world. We have an extra 10,000 nurses in the health service, true, but we need many more, and we need cancer and heart surgeons too. The incidence of domestic burglary has fallen by 20 per cent. in three years, true, but violent crime is still increasing.

A lot has been done, but a lot more needs to be done, and this Government will do it. We will deliver the stability. We will deliver the investment that the country needs. We will deliver opportunity for all in a civic society founded on rights and responsibilities.

Our purpose is to build a Britain that is strong, modern and fair. Under this Government, at long last, economic prosperity and fairness are no longer seen as opponents; they are seen as partners in the process of building the Britain of the future.

Mr. William Hague (Richmond, Yorks): I must begin by thanking the Prime Minister for delivering a statement of such excitement that at least two Cabinet Ministers were present for the start of it. Only this Prime Minister, when accused of being all talk and no delivery, would try to talk his way out of it. Only he, when accused of being all spin and no substance, would try to spin his way out of trouble. Only he, when accused of being all gloss and gimmicks, would attempt to rebut the charge by publishing a glossy brochure, which is yet another gimmick from his Government of gimmicks.

This is the third annual report. The first was entitled, "So what do you think?"; the second was called,"So, what are we doing?"; the third should accurately be called, "So what on earth are we going to do now?" We have all learned what to expect from the Prime Minister's annual reports.

I shall give hon. Members extracts from these reports, because the Prime Minister has not done so. First, there is the banal.

The UK is home to 59 million people.

Thanks very much for that staggering piece of information. Then there is the completely untrue. Page 46 of today's annual report states that, as part of the delivery of the Government's vision,

this year saw the opening of the UK Sports Institute, providing world-class facilities, coaching and support in Sheffield.

As everyone in Sheffield knows, not a brick has been laid. No such institute has been opened, and the whole thing is now to be sited in London. How are we to believe any of this rubbish? No wonder only 49,000 copies were sold last year, 41,000 of which were bought by the Government. It is not exactly Harry Potter, is it--although it requires as much imagination to believe it?

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Then there is the ridiculous. Last year's report said:

The Dome at Greenwich will provide the focus for the country and the rest of the world.

This year's report says that

the dome remains controversial.

Then there are the missing items. There is room this year for a full-page picture of a man on a telephone, but there is no space to mention the Chancellor's £5 billion tax on pension funds, the thousands of criminals released from jail early by the Home Secretary, or the complete collapse of the Foreign Secretary's ethical foreign policy.

Then we have more of the blatantly untrue. In the previous two reports, but not in this year's, the Government provided a helpful list of their claims of progress on their manifesto pledges. Last year they made some interesting claims. For instance:

Develop an integrated transport policy. Done.

It is true that the Deputy Prime Minister integrated petrol price rises with traffic jams.

Hold referendum on any EMU decision. Kept.

Did we all miss something? Have we had a referendum?

Referendum on voting systems. On course.


. . . EU enlargement. Done.


CAP reform. On course.


Back the 2006 World Cup bid. On course.

That is last year.

This year, the helpful list has disappeared and in its place the interested reader has to visit 177 different web pages in order to add them up. We can see some of the changes. The integrated transport policy has now become:

Improving transport is a key priority for the Government.

What happened? Last year it was all done and integrated. Now it has disintegrated. Holding a referendum on voting systems has become:

The timing of a referendum has not yet been decided.

Last year it was all on course. The 2006 world cup bid now reads:

The final decision is 6 July 2000.

Is anyone updating the Government's website? Could that be a job for an out-of-work press secretary?

Is not today's report--this rubbish, this complete detachment from reality that we have been given--yet another signal that the Prime Minister lives in a fantasy world in which the dome is a great success, everyone wants to abolish section 28, everyone wants to adopt the euro and everyone believes figures produced by the Chancellor? Even when the report makes a claim that is true, it avoids the whole truth. It claims that 1 million jobs have been created in the past three years but does not mention that in the previous three years, under the previous Government, 1.1 million jobs were created. Does the Prime Minister think that we are all citizens in some Soviet village waiting to hear the glorious news about tractor production and willing to overlook the fact that no tractors have actually arrived?

Is not the truth that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have repeatedly announced £19 billion for this and £21 billion for that, and that they have little or nothing to show for it? The majority in the country have been

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asked to pay again and again for services that are getting worse. Now the Government expect everyone to throw their hats in the air as they announce more fantasy figures pretending to know what will happen to the economy in four years' time and throwing all prudence to the winds.

Yesterday, as the Prime Minister threw some ludicrous figures around, he announced his own estimation of increased taxes--if he is allowed to go on governing--of £16 billion. Cannot we now be certain of two things: with this Prime Minister, services will not get any better but taxes will keep going up? If he wants to fight an election on that, we are happy to do so.

Is there not a massive contrast between his ridiculous claims and the daily experience of the mainstream majority of people in this country? Is there not a massive contrast between this self-congratulatory nonsense and the annual report that would be written by the people of Britain? Would not an annual report produced by the people of Britain say that the Prime Minister promised to improve the NHS and cut waiting lists, but the waiting list for the waiting list has doubled? Would not an annual report by the people of Britain say that he promised to be tough on crime, but he has been weak on crime and it is going up? Would not an annual report by the people of Britain say that he promised to cut class sizes, but class sizes in secondary schools have gone up? Would it not say that he promised to keep taxes down, but he has piled billions of pounds of stealth taxes on to hard-working families? Would it not say that he has comprehensively failed to deliver on public services?

Instead of this report, should we not have a real report on the Government? No tax increases at all--abandoned. Twenty-four hours to save the NHS--abandoned. An ethical foreign policy--abandoned. Broken promises--done. Weak leadership--done. Split on the euro--done. The slow slide from admiration to fascination to disillusion to contempt--on course.

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