I think that it is only fair to remind hon. and right hon. Members opposite that the reserves fell by 2,180 million dollars between mid-1951 and mid-1952 - the Crisis in the Middle of which they left office.

I say that a Crisis in the Middle of 1967 is not relevant to what we may do in 1968.

The matter came to a Crisis in the Middle of the last century, as your Lordships will remember, in the famous case of Stockdale v Hansard, which ended most unfortunately with, on the one hand, the House of Commons committing the sheriffs of Middlesex, who were enforcing the decrees of the law courts and, on the other hand, the law courts committing the Officer of the Serjeant-at-Arms, who was carrying out the decrees of the House of Commons.

That is the lesson of the previous three Labour Governments, who churned out a great deal of spending on public services at the beginning of a Parliament, hit a Crisis in the Middle of it, then spent the rest of it recovering their position and going to the polls saying, "We are sorry, we have made a terrible mess,but we will try to do better next time".

If the scenario is a Crisis in the Middle of the night, at which point help is being sought from the medical profession, the chances are that the decision making of the person involved is impaired.