Certainly, at this stage we understand that the World Bank report on Pakistan's Debt Crisis is said to be complete.
Mr. Janner asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action has been taken to combat the Debt Crisis in Africa.
In this mounting Crisis of Debt, aid is necessary to show that the Government still have confidence in the industry.
I refer to the Debt Crisis.
The Crisis of Debts owed by Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and other countries such as Poland and Yugoslavia suddenly concentrated the mind of the North, which began to look more seriously at what was going wrong with the economic structure of the world and what was happening in the Third world countries, admittedly some of the bigger ones, such as Mexico and Brazil, which were getting into a position that threatened the whole banking structure around which the economies of the industrial world revolve.
However, the one thing that has undoubtedly changed the climate in the open market has been the Debt Crisis and the threat to the world banking system.
The report continues:In our judgment the major threat to successful resolution of the Debt Crisis therefore lies in the possibility that an adequate global recovery will fail to materialise.
If my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) were here, he might care to remember that the Debt Crisis started with Poland.
One can only conclude that, despite the fine rhetoric of the manifesto, the alliance has concluded that there are no votes in resolving the Debt Crisis of the Third world.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell) has observed, our constituencies face a further 500 redundancies at the British Leyland Bathgate plant as a direct result of the Third world's Debt Crisis.
It is perhaps unreasonable to hold it against the Economic Secretary on both counts, but it is a matter of regret for the House as a whole and a particular criticism of the Government that it is now a full year since the origins of the Debt Crisis with the Mexican threat to default.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich (Mr. Barnett) said in his excellent introductory remarks, the Third world countries are dealing with serious problems- the Debt Crisis, crippling interest rates, the oil price increase and the fall in commodity prices, which comes as a great blow to those countries and has led to greater problems of poverty, malnutrition and so on, which we in the House want to help to solve.
The background to that deterioration in the political scene is the world economy, which is threatend by a Debt Crisis which worsens every week.
If that were to be fulfilled, despite the astronomic level of the Debt Crisis now facing North and South, we could, within five years - not 10 or 15 years - put the Third world debt crisis behind us.
Is the Minister aware that the total United Kingdom aid programme is about, one-thousandth part of the Debt Crisis of Third world countries?
, it has disappointed us that the Government have often been the most negative and least imaginative in their response to the Debt Crisis in Third-world nations.
Therefore;, it has disappointed us that the Government have often been the most negative and least imaginative in their response to the Debt Crisis in Third-world nations.
The failure of the leaders of the strongest economies to take systematic and serious initiatives to deal with the current and growing Debt Crisis in an unforgivable evasion of the responsibilities that go with their immense power.
We have set out a programme to deal with the Debt Crisis - [Interruption.
a year, thereby making it possible through recovery for them to put the brunt of the Debt Crisis behind them not in 10 or 15 years but in five years.
We all know that they are available and that without the Debt Crisis there would be even more markets for what our people are producing.
While it is essential to avoid providing irresponsible credit, which would only increase the risk of future defaults by developing countries, is it not very much in the interests of British exporters that adequate credit be provided to countries which are taking steps to emerge from Their Debt Crisis?
I welcome the Minister's remarks about the action that the ECGD will take in relation to certain countries with a Debt Crisis.
They claim that it is inappropriate for it to be involved with issues such as the international Debt Crisis.
We need to tackle the Debt Crisis and we need to spend far more time in this House considering ways of genuine international collaboration.
That would make it possible not only to offset the Debt Crisis in some respects through repayment.
The Debt Crisis represents an intolerable burden on the poor.
With a recovery programme of at least $100 billion a year we could make real progress towards resolving not only the Debt Crisis of the Third world but its income and resources crisis.
Recently we have seen a fall of the Government in Sudan largely because of the Debt Crisis.
Mr. Hoyle asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions have been held by European Economic Community Foreign Ministers concerning the Debt Crisis.
At the same time, there have been a series of meetings about the world economy in OECD and the International Monetary Fund which have failed to reach agreement on any of the fundamental issues now troubling the world-exchange rate instability, the Debt Crisis, protectionism and, above all, unemployment.
It is the Debt Crisis.
That was a point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, East (Mr. Healey) when he talked about the Debt Crisis in the Third world.
Will my right hon. Friend take steps at the G10 meeting to secure contingency arrangements to deal with the possible collapse of the dollar exchange rate, which could have most serious effects on United States interest rates, the Debt Crisis in South America and elsewhere and, indeed, the stability of the international system?
A debate titled "The need for urgent new measures to deal with famine and remedy the Debt Crisis in developing countries", followed by a debate titled "Government responsibility for the desperate plight of young people".
Apart from asking Third world countries to deal with the problems of the Debt Crisis to which the motion refers-to deal with increasing interest charges at a time when commodity prices are going down and to cope with international inflation, which applies as much to them as to us, remembering that it greatly concerns the world recession-we must remember that we have given a commitment to spend amounts on armaments which, I suggest, are unreasonable in the light of the problems that the countries of the Third world are facing.
Northern and Western countries must accept responsibility for the Debt Crisis and the man-made famine caused by our overconsumption and our commercial systems.
Therefore, there have been cuts, the Debt Crisis has increased, the need has never been greater, and the general nature of the Government's response has been unfavourable.
Mr. Barron asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the Debt Crisis and the effect of the accession of Spain and Portugal to the European Economic Community on the position of debtor countries.
However, the Government's contribution is less than it should be, and certainly so against the scale of the Debt Crisis with which Africa is faced.
It is a matter of great regret and concern that, in view of the problems which my right hon. Friend the Member for Clydesdale (Dame J. Hart) mentioned-the Debt Crisis, recycling, world poverty and the rest - we are not able to make progress in trying to solve these outstanding issues.
I shall confine my remarks to Latin America, which managed to get a line in the Queen's Speech when the Government claimed to support the Contadora process, and the implications of the Debt Crisis for the people of Latin America.
Will not Spain's and Portugal's inevitable shift to the Lome countries, as a result of accession, make the Debt Crisis of Latin America worse?
I am referring to the Debt Crisis which is squeezing the life out of Africa and Latin America.
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions have been held in the European Economic Community Foreign Affairs Council concerning the Debt Crisis; and if he will make a statement.
Did the Foreign Affairs Council discuss the Impending Debt Crisis within the European Community following the failure of the budgetary discipline arrangement?
It is fair to say that when we speak of the Debt Crisis we mean nations which are far poorer than any single nation of the collective entity of the European Community.
secondly, about the deterioration in Soviet-United States relations and the role of Britain and Europe; and, thirdly, the implications for our aid budget of the Debt Crisis in Africa.
I shall speak first about the position in South Africa; secondly, about the deterioration in Soviet-United States relations and the role of Britain and Europe; and, thirdly, the implications for our aid budget of the Debt Crisis in Africa.
I know that the Minister would want the Bill to be effective in trying to deal with the many problems that arise from the Debt Crisis which the world faces.
The position is not the same as the over-extension of some British banks during the Debt Crisis in Latin America.
Compound the constraints to development by adding high real interest rates, the prospect of increasing protectionist pressures and the lack of implemented new initiatives to resolve the Debt Crisis and the prospects of a serious collapse in the international banking community remains a reality.
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action has been taken to combat the Debt Crisis in Africa.
I shall take one example, which was mentioned by my right hon and learned Friend - the Debt Crisis.
That problem has been compounded by the halving of the real aid given abroad by the Government and by the leeching of the international banking system on the Debt Crisis.
Does my hon. Friend agree that, apart from considering the mounting Debt Crisis and the need to increase aid, the Government should review their attitude towards full cost fees for overseas students?
First, the commercial banks have used the five years since the Debt Crisis broke to strengthen their balance sheets considerably.
Action to deal with the Debt Crisis is also urgently required to stimulate fresh flows of investment.
I spent three weeks in Brazil this autumn and saw directly the consequences of the Debt Crisis.
We also expect IDA funds to be used creatively to offset the worst impact of the Debt Crisis on the world's poorest countries.
During Monday's debate on the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Bill, my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber (Sir R. Johnston), who I think is on the way to Lochaber tonight, referred to the immense scale of the Third world Debt Crisis and the fact that interest payments are now so high that they outweigh all cash flows into the developing world, leaving a net outflow of cash from developing to developed countries of about $26 billion a year.
The Bill seeks to tackle the growing Debt Crisis in our society and recognises that much of the recent consumer boom has been financed on credit.
There is clearly great concern about the Debt Crisis, interest rates and commodity prices.
The Debt Crisis hits at the standard of living of a large number of people throughout the world.
The Debt Crisis in Latin America represents Government and bank lending problems, and not necessarily the settlement of trade debt.
Latin America is now beginning to emerge from the Debt Crisis, although I readily admit that it is still worrying for many nations.
Many of the environmental disasters in Brazil and elsewhere are a direct consequence of the Debt Crisis.
The Debt Crisis is a time bomb waiting to explode.
It is high time that policy makers in the leading industrialised countries accepted the market's hidden realism about the Debts Crisis.
While the Debt Crisis may have been contained, it has not been solved.
The Debt Crisis emphatically demonstrates the inadequacy of the existing Bretton Woods institutions - the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
The Debt Crisis is serious, and I hope that when he replies the Minister will tell us what plans he has to do something about it.
I warn the House that the lesson to emerge from the Debt Crisis has been that conditions attached to debt are unenforceable.
Will he also accept that the serious problem of the destruction of rain forests in Amazonia and elsewhere is partly caused by the Debt Crisis, which imposes an economic system on those countries which forces them to destroy the rain forest and thus damage the environment for the rest of the world?
But the real tragedy is that the resulting Debt Crisis, far from encouraging forgiveness, has relentlessly ensured that the sins of the fathers have been visited on children in the third world.
It is also reflected in countries such as Brazil, in which the infant mortality rate fell steadily until about 1980, when the Debt Crisis hit.
The IMF in September 1987 issued a statement celebrating five successive years of growth in the world's economies, but I would have to say that that was unequal development and growth, because in that same period there was an escalation of the Debt Crisis wreaking havoc on the economies of the debtor nations.
We welcome the fact that the worst phase of the Debt Crisis has passed.
The Minister says that the worst part of the Debt Crisis is over.
But it is larger today before any further quota increase than it was immediately after the last quota increase, which itself was to some extent a response to the Debt Crisis which began with Mexico in 1982.
Does the Minister accept that the attitude of the EEC and of North American countries towards commodity prices has been a major contributory factor in the Debt Crisis in much of the world?
Mr. John Garrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action the Government are taking to resolve the Debt Crisis of developing countries.
they are about making them dependent on yet another cash crop that will tie them further into the Debt Crisis.
The Government's response to the Debt Crisis has been pitiful.
Those programmes are not about involving people in shaping their future; they are about making them dependent on yet another cash crop that will tie them further into the Debt Crisis.
The Debt Crisis means that $50 billion flows north.
There is a Debt Crisis that threatens to make that poverty even worse, and that will impact adversely upon Britain's banking system.
Given the scale of the Debt Crisis facing many developing countries, any package is to be welcomed inasmuch as it helps to relieve them of debt.
I want to know what the case is for and against the ERM or any other issue, and how we should deal with the Debt Crisis and so on.
While the discussions are portrayed as a battle between the United States and western Europe, in reality the people who are losing out worst on the food and farm production side are Third-world producers, who are not in a position to negotiate against dumping because of the Debt Crisis and the economic power that the United States uses against them.
Thirdly, what happens to the political sovereignty of poor countries that do not have the infrastructure that is available in Europe and north America when they are told that, because of the Debt Crisis, they must open up their economies to multinational capital to do whatever it will, and when the IMF and the World bank tell them that they must cut social expenditure?
The Current Debt Crisis is clearly devastating.
The current Debt Crisis is clearly devastating.
Fewer children in those countries go to school, and UNICEF estimates that the Debt Crisis is costing about 500,000 young lives a year.
British banks say that they have suffered as as result of the Debt Crisis, yet in 1989 alone, they achieved tax write-offs of £1,700 million in respect of debt non-repayments, which is considerably more than the British aid programme.
Developing countries cannot possibly grow their way out of the Debt Crisis as debt payments are made to the rich.
In recent years, ECGD support for project exports has proved an expensive business for the taxpayer, largely due to the effects of the Debt Crisis, which has plunged ECGD's accounts into substantial deficit, after many years of operating at a healthy surplus.
No one involved in the financing of international trade predicted that we would have a Debt Crisis as severe as that which arose in the early 1980s.
The experience of the Debt Crisis in the world prompted the initiative that resulted in the announcement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry last week of the introduction of the portfolio management system.
I hope that he will accept that, given the Debt Crisis, we had to introduce PMs for the sake of the taxpayer as well as of the exporter.
At least this Lomé convention mentions the Debt Crisis.
The Debt Crisis affecting third-world countries at present means that, in real terms, they are subsidising the banking systems and commodity brokers of the north, at the expense of their own people.
Does the Minister agree that the best way in which to bring immediate and significant benefits to third-world countries such as Zimbabwe would be to roll back restrictions on trade and address the Debt Crisis?
Did the summit discuss the very real link between the Debt Crisis and the drugs crisis?
Unless the Debt Crisis is resolved, the poverty of Bangladesh is likely to continue for a long time.
The poverty that is created in some African countries by a combination of the Debt Crisis, poor harvests and droughts forces people to seek survival somewhere else.
I hope that this will be a progressive Europe, which can take a progressive view of the Debt Crisis and the international movement of capital.
The imbalance between north and south, the plight of starving children in Africa and India, and the Debt Crisis that ravages Latin America cannot be solved so long as the west maintains its massive expenditure on arms and supports economic inequality in the world.
My hon. Friend will be aware that as a result of the Debt Crisis, over the past few years the ECGD has accumulated a deficit of more than £4 billion which is, of course, a deficit that falls to the taxpayer.
For 13 years, massive cuts in Britain's aid spending, a lack of real action to tackle the Debt Crisis, a refusal to address the deterioration in the terms of trade for the poorest countries, and laggardly support for key international institutions have contributed to the growth of poverty and the impoverishment of many nations.
No one should be under any illusions as to the extent of the global Crisis in Debt.
That is 55 times the annual budget of UNICEF - the respected organisation that estimated that half a million young children were dying each year as a result of the Debt Crisis - and twice the annual OECD development aid to low income countries.
They pretended to the public that they were doing something about the Debt Crisis of developing countries, when in reality they were enjoying a handout at the expense of British taxpayers.
One thinks of the Debt Crisis, the power of multinational capital, unfair trading arrangements, and the low prices paid for commodities.
Clearly, there is a Debt Crisis in the United Kingdom.
All too often in This Debt Crisis, we see not merely industrial failure.
The World bank displays absurd complacency about the Debt Crisis being over when everyone in the poorest parts of the world would say that it is easily the most important problem to be faced.
I accept that the Debt Crisis is not over - not least for many countries in Africa.
The Debt Crisis is over, but only for the banks.
It is also clear that, although we have a debt problem, it is not a Debt Crisis.
My hon. Friend reported that, while scarcely surprised to find the country facing severe economic difficulties, he was nonetheless shocked to learn at first hand of the price being paid by ordinary Ugandans for the Debt Crisis burdening their country.
Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Treasury about the development implications of the continuing Debt Crisis in Uganda.
If the Government have no fresh initiatives, we can only conclude that they have no strategy for dealing with the Debt Crisis facing the world's poorest countries.
In making provision against their profits for non-payment of the capital interest on loans for the poorest countries, the banks have already borne the adverse effects of the Debt Crisis on their profits.
It is encouraging that the World bank acknowledged recently that it must take more radical action on the Debt Crisis simply because sub-Saharan Africa could not sustain its current levels of debt servicing.
I also hope that, in their deliberations, they will think about some of the effects on the poorest people in other parts of the world of the policies pursued by a very small number of industrial countries - the way in which poverty is visited on sub-Saharan Africa by the GATT deal and the imposition of poverty wages on countries that are trying to get out of the Debt Crisis.
We have restored export credit cover for markets emerging from the Debt Crisis earlier than would normally have been the case.
The horrors of what is happening in Mexico as a direct result of the World bank's intervention during the Debt Crisis of the early 1980s and now the North American Free Trade Agreement will not go away in a hurry and it might well break the stranglehold of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional on politics in Mexico.
They are forced to pay huge amounts of their export earnings straight back to the banking systems of western Europe and north America to meet that Debt Crisis.
We must recognise that debt and the structural adjustment programme that brought on the Debt Crisis have produced massive social consequences in many countries of Latin America.
I was glad to learn that a series of seminars have been arranged next week by the Debt Crisis Network to highlight that problem.
The history of the Debt Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s is a fantastic tale of the agents of international banks criss-crossing the third world urging dictators to take on debts.
Will the right hon. Gentleman assure hon. Members that at the spring meeting in April of the International Monetary Fund and the World bank, the British Government will be at the forefront in pushing for a comprehensive solution to the Debt Crisis aimed at restoring debt stock and debt servicing to sustainable levels by 2000, and financed from new and additional resources from within multilateral institutions, including the World bank and the sale of IMF gold stocks?
Will he discuss such proposals to solve the problem with the Debt Crisis Network?
Has his attention been drawn to the report of the Debt Crisis Network, appendix 2 and 3 of which point out that the conditions imposed on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia by the International Monetary Fund were factors in exacerbating regional and ethnic differences, which contributed to the atrocities of which we are only too well aware?
If such allegations by the Debt Crisis network have any substance, will representations be made not only to our representative on the IMF, but to the World Bank on comparable activities in that organisation?
Clare Short: Jubilee 2000 have been in touch with me on a number of occasions, most recently on 11 June, when I met representatives of the Debt Crisis Network to discuss their latest proposal for reducing the debts of the poorest countries.
I welcome the efforts of the Debt Crisis Network, and other non-governmental organisations, in raising awareness in the UK and elsewhere of the debt problems faced by many developing countries.
My hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr. Grant) spoke about the Debt Crisis.
During the decade since the onset of the Debt Crisis in 1982, the poor countries of the south have exported to the rich countries of the north the equivalent of six times the aid under the Marshall plan, the programme agreed at Bretton Woods to help Europe recover after the second world war.
That was the single biggest contribution to resolving the Debt Crisis.
Progress is being made, and the Chancellor will know that he has the support of the House in his efforts to obtain relief for the Debt Crisis which he has so courageously addressed since taking office.
Mr. Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the response by the US Government to Her Majesty's Government's initiatives on the Current Debt Crisis.
I should like to deal with two areas of immense concern, HIV and education, and encourage the Government to make even greater efforts on the Debt Crisis, which is central to success in these areas.
There is also the question of what steps the international community is willing to take to ensure that the Debt Crisis facing so many poor countries does not occur again.
Those important words recognise the fact that more needs to be done, and give us some hope of developing an international response to the Debt Crisis.
I recollect that - astonishingly - 20 years ago, the year when I was chairman of the Interim Committee, we had the task, which I am sure we did not perform fully, of handling the early examples of Debt Crisis, in Mexico, for example, with enhancement of the fund's resources by a 50 per cent expansion in special drawing rights.
I half agree with the hon. Gentleman that the growing Debt Crisis is the reason why the Government have assembled such a powerful coalition in opposition to their proposals.
The Chancellor, in particular, has led G7 and G8 talks on the Debt Crisis and other matters.
The service, which is free, independent and of high quality, is straining to meet the needs of people with a Debt Crisis.
On behalf of many thousands of students at De Montfort and Leicester universities, I ask the Minister to explain why his Government went back on their word and, in the light of the increasing Debt Crisis in my constituency, I respectfully request the opportunity to bring a small number of students - students who start with a passion for knowledge and end up with a massive debt - to meet him to discuss their problems.
It is hardly surprising that a Debt Crisis ensued.
The petition reads: The Petition of residents of Pudsey constituency and others, Declares that the Current Debt Crisis, trade injustice and shortcomings of aid exacerbate poverty, inequality, the HIV/AIDs crisis and environmental degradation across the developing world; and further declares that if the international community is to make poverty history then there needs to be further co-ordinated political action by the world's governments, including the United Kingdom, aimed at trade justice, dropping the debt and providing more and better aid.
Some countries' debt repayments have actually risen thanks to debt cancellation, and responsible lending and borrowing is vital to ensure a sustainable end to the Debt Crisis.
My Lords, care must be taken not to compound the situation by replicating the worst features that produced the Debt Crisis.
However, responsible lending and borrowing are vital to ensure that there is a sustainable end to the Debt Crisis.
The wider commitments made by the G8 on development are undoubtedly weakened by the failure to take the giant leap that is internationally needed to end the Debt Crisis that we all know shackles so many poor countries and deepens poverty, although it is heartening that the IMF has ratified cancellation for 17 out of 18 countries.
The wider commitments made by G8 on development are undoubtedly weakened by the failure to take the giant leap that is internationally needed to end the Debt Crisis that we all know shackles so many poor countries and deepens poverty, although it is heartening that the IMF has ratified cancellation for 17 out of 18 countries.
Then there was the Debt Crisis and the terrible fall in living standards that followed.
I am raising the matter today because I believe that it is a major contributor to the UK's Debt Crisis and to social exclusion.
The average cost of debt repayment in relation to income is now close to the level experienced during the Debt Crisis under the previous Conservative Government.
In the longer term, we all need to recognise that there are still unresolved issues from the Current Debt Crisis, and if we do not tackle them properly, they could re-emerge to create a new crisis as new lending increases.
Debt has always been a problem for some, but we live in an increasingly materialistic society and that is fuelling a growing Debt Crisis.
The Government need to start reducing their debt burden and demonstrating that they are serious about helping to unwind the Debt Crisis, taking a different attitude to PFI, PPP, off balance sheet and guarantees of trading companies, into which they entered so liberally in recent years.
The Debt Crisis arose because loans were given at a time when the economic circumstances were more stable and promising.
An energy crisis, a recession in the US, global terrorism or a substantial fall in house prices could change the economic climate, plunging many more people into a severe Debt Crisis.
With the collapsing housing market, a mortgage famine and savage credit squeeze, the Debt Crisis will not be solved any time soon.
Few people are at all sure how This Debt Crisis came about.
We are in a Debt Crisis.
Because of the £50,000 deposit guarantee, the public are probably willing to await the outcome of the mountain-of-Debt Crisis, but the bankers do not know how to deal with it and have almost entirely lost their confidence.
What, if any, should be the limit on the amount that the UK Government print and borrow to avoid a run on the pound, a Debt Crisis or a trip to the international moneylenders?
When did Treasury Ministers first become aware that there was a Debt Crisis in this country?
He has preached the need for more Government borrowing and spending to get us out of a Debt Crisis and has brought forward £3 billion of expenditure on capital projects - on everything from £30 million for play facilities for children to £300 million for road building.
Tackling Labour's Debt Crisis entails ensuring that the Government live within their means - that we control public spending and deliver more for less.
He did not use the Budget to take action on Labour's Debt Crisis, built up over the years.
The reality is that we face a Debt Crisis.
It failed to provide a theme - a vision even - of how to address the Debt Crisis that is poised to overwhelm the country.
This Government are in denial: they are in denial about the depth of the Debt Crisis; denial about their role in bringing this country to the state it is in; denial about the state of the jobs crisis; denial about the failure of their welfare programme.
They have given no credible explanation of how they will address the Debt Crisis.
Nowhere is that more clear perhaps than in their failure to have a plan to tackle the Debt Crisis and a radical strategy to tackle the jobs crisis.
It is therefore essential that the Government-and, indeed, the next Government-can convince the markets that serious action will take place to address the Debt Crisis.
One of the underlying characteristics of the deep financial and Debt Crisis in which we find ourselves is that continuing state of denial.
His second was to set out a credible plan to deal with the Debt Crisis.
Why does he think that he should rely on consumers backtracking, when they have worked out that they have a Debt Crisis even if the Government have not?
Yet again, it is low and middle-income earners who will pay the price for Labour's Debt Crisis, with the delays taking £2.
The Chancellor is at least vaguely aware, I think, of the seriousness of the Debt Crisis this country faces, but the Prime Minister is in complete denial.
The hon. Gentleman knows that I am one of the most committed supporters of a democratic second Chamber, but even I would balk at bringing in a measure for that purpose at this time, given the Debt Crisis and the deficit crisis.
2 billion-worth, which was the single biggest contribution to easing the Debt Crisis.
We recognise that we need to tackle the Debt Crisis, which will also affect many pensioners, while ensuring a decent standard of living in old age.
This generation is the one that will pick up the bill for this Government's Debt Crisis, the one that will have to work harder to obtain higher qualifications in order to have the privilege of doing so and, sadly, for reasons that are outside the remit of this debate, the one that is, in many cases, leaving school with worse qualifications in the sense of being able to read, write and get out into the workplace.
If the Government refuse to tackle the Debt Crisis, the STFC's costs could rise even higher because the pound will probably plummet further.
Labour's Debt Crisis is the single biggest threat to physics over the next decade.
We do live in this global economy and although I certainly do not share the Prime Minister's view that he saved the world during the middle of the Debt Crisis, I give him credit for understanding that, regardless of the problems in UK, this was solvable only by looking around the world and trying to get agreement.
I think Labour and its new leader will have to think through the consequences of the Massive Debt Crisis they have left behind.
Under the headline "Markets in turmoil", City AM, which is edited by Allister Heath, who became director of research of the European Foundation, a think-tank that I happen to have the honour of chairing, states: "SHAREs worldwide plunged yesterday as fears that Europe's sovereign Debt Crisis would lead to a fresh collapse in the banking sector.
That is why we will not let Labour's Debt Crisis, which we have inherited, mean that we cut the NHS and make the sick pay.
It is abundantly clear that the Debt Crisis left by Labour has placed intense pressure on the public finances, so we cannot default to a position where a shortfall in the promised private sector funding for the station simply pushes up the costs for the taxpayer.
In the leader in today's Financial Timeswe hear more about Europe's Debt Crisis.
My Lords, I should point out to the noble Lord, Lord Barnett, that the Bank of England was indeed drawing attention in its financial stability reports to the Debt Crisis and some of the looming debt problems, but did not have the tools to deal with it.
The Debt Crisis was exacerbated, not created, by the banking crisis.
The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have come together to tackle the Debt Crisis facing our country.
The sick must not pay for Labour's Debt Crisis.
Do Labour Members really think that there could not have been a Debt Crisis here?
However, we do not believe that the sick should pay the price for the Debt Crisis, and this funding will enable the NHS in Nottingham to continue improving services.
The one that has been mentioned most by those on the Government Benches is that we would find ourselves in a Debt Crisis as a result of a lack of confidence in the cuts that we are making.
As she worked in the private sector helping small businesses, does she agree that the biggest fear of people in the private sector is not cuts to the public sector, but the threat of a rising Debt Crisis with interest payments alone-now she shakes her head-forecast to rise to £67 billion a year?
We have a huge Debt Crisis and are told that the Government want to nurture SMEs as the engine of growth in the future.
Will the Minister confirm that tomorrow at the European Council the leaders of France and Germany are going to propose treaty changes on the Debt Crisis resolution mechanism?
It is in our national interest that Europe should avoid being paralysed by Another Debt Crisis, as it was with Greece in May, and it is absolutely in our national interest that Britain should not be drawn into having to help with any future bail-out.
It is in our national interest that Europe avoids being paralysed by Another Debt Crisis, as it was with Greece in May, and it is absolutely in our national interest that Britain is not drawn into having to help with any future bailout.
You do not have to be outside the eurozone to share that ambition, but is it not inconsistent with the preceding sentence, which is: "It is in our national interest that Europe avoids being paralysed by Another Debt Crisis as it was with Greece in May"?
That honours a coalition agreement promise to freeze council tax, even in the face of the Worst Debt Crisis since the second world war.
It would be different if we did not have an awful national Debt Crisis, but we do.
If we had not tackled the Debt Crisis, the interest payments would have been heading towards £70 billion a year.
There are two ways of managing a Debt Crisis: either by a bailout-the provision of funds or guarantees; or by restructuring-or, to give it its proper name, default.
The coalition Government have earned the respect of the international capital markets and have their confidence, because the combination of a tight fiscal and a loose monetary policy remains the best chance of avoiding a sovereign Debt Crisis while ensuring acceptable increases in GDP.
I refer to the three words that the Chancellor used at the beginning of his Budget statement last week, which are so important in setting out its significance: “rescue” because the coalition has had to rescue the British economy from a Debt Crisis that would have seen our interest repayments rising to £70 billion a year; “rebalance” because the Labour party has tested to destruction the thesis that a modern economy can be driven through public spending and an unsustainable boom and bust; and “recover” because without a private sector-led recovery, we are condemned to a decade of stagflation.
I refer to the three words that the Chancellor used at the beginning of his Budget statement last week, which are so important in setting out its significance: "rescue" because the coalition have had to rescue the British economy from a Debt Crisis that would have seen our interest repayments rising to £70 billion a year; "rebalance" because the Labour party has tested to destruction the thesis that a modern economy can be driven through public spending and an unsustainable boom and bust; and "recover" because without a private sector-led recovery, we are condemned to a decade of stagflation.
The ranking Republican Senator, Richard Lugar, who also has huge experience on that committee, reinforced the message, saying: “The question before us is whether Afghanistan is important enough to justify the lives and massive resources that are being spent there, especially given our nation's Debt Crisis.
May we have a statement on the continuing Debt Crisis in the eurozone and its effect on our International Monetary Fund contributions?
We are all in it together when dealing with This Debt Crisis, so why should we tax disproportionately heavily a particular type of one-earner family?
Some will no doubt respond by saying that this is a result of the tax burden having to increase on everyone in the context of the Debt Crisis.
What has been the effect of the Government's handling of the Debt Crisis?
Far from the Debt Crisis being the cause of this criminality, it is a vital opportunity for us to wean our young people off a shallow celebrity culture and restore some old-fashioned virtues of thrift, personal responsibility and respect for the law.
Does that not show that the deficit strategy is working, and that the shadow Chancellor is wholly out of touch and has not learned the golden rule that you cannot borrow your way out of a Debt Crisis?
But let me just say to the right hon. Gentleman that, on a day when France and Germany are meeting to stop Greece going bankrupt, he must be the only person in the world who thinks that you spend more to get out of a Debt Crisis.
The shadow Chancellor still thinks that the answer to a Debt Crisis is to spend more money.
When is the Labour party going to learn that one cannot borrow one's way out of a Debt Crisis?
Can the right hon. Gentleman name one country that has got out of a Debt Crisis by taking on more debt?
The one thing that we want to avoid in a Debt Crisis is a sharp rise in interest rates, but that is what the motion would bring about.
Does my hon. Friend agree that, like a compulsive gambler believes that one more big bet will solve all his problems, the shadow Chancellor and the Labour party believe that one more credit splurge will get us out of a Debt Crisis?
What we have heard from the shadow Chancellor today suggests that it believes that we can solve a Debt Crisis by taking on more debt.
We know that this is a Debt Crisis, so why did people borrow so much and save too little?
It was the year when the Debt Crisis was just about to crash over the whole of the public sector.
If the EFSF must also fund bank recapitalisation, will it be sufficient to give the markets confidence, and will there be funds remaining to underpin any sovereign Debt Crisis and prevent further contagion?
Following on from the Chancellor's final remarks, I am sure he would agree that without a restoration of growth in the eurozone, the Debt Crisis simply cannot be resolved.
The message from Government Members is that this economic crisis is built on debt, but the point of view of some of us is that the Debt Crisis results from a financial crash that was not made here in Britain.
You do not solve a Debt Crisis by adding to your debts - [ Interruption.
My Lords, I want to suggest a specific course of action in the Debt Crisis, but let me first put it in an abstract context.
The Commission and the European Parliament also need reminding that, without growth, we cannot solve the Debt Crisis, the banking crisis or the jobs crisis.
As we are seeing across the eurozone, countries cannot spend their way out of a Debt Crisis.
All that has happened, and all the concern there has been, is to put together more debt to solve an existing Debt Crisis.
Can my hon. Friend tell me whether the IMF previously lent money to make a Debt Crisis worse, as it is now doing?
To add to the debt when we have a Debt Crisis by lowering VAT would be economically inept.
I am sure that my colleagues on the Front Bench would agree with me that we cannot get out of a Debt Crisis by borrowing more.
It is monetary and credit policy that is, in a Debt Crisis, the principal and most powerful tool for stimulating demand.
First, he said that we should try to borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis; he talked about extra borrowing.
As I said in my statement, I believe, particularly in a Debt Crisis, that monetary policy is the most powerful tool for supporting demand.
We are currently, in a Debt Crisis, borrowing money more cheaply than Germany.
We cannot borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis, and as long as the Labour party goes on advocating that approach, I suspect that its credibility will fall and fall.
The reality, as the OBR and the Institute for Fiscal Studies make very clear, is that you cannot borrow your way out of a Debt Crisis.
That is why it is particularly important at this time and in This Debt Crisis that we try to keep our interest rates low.
5% and that is a sign of the credibility that we have earned in a Debt Crisis.
The Labour party, which is now advancing this new theory that Britain's low interest rates in This Debt Crisis are a sign of policy failure, not policy success.
In recovering from a Debt Crisis throughout the west, we face difficult challenges.
I certainly accept that growth and the protection of the economy will be difficult because we are escaping from a Debt Crisis in which we had the biggest boom and the biggest bust.
Why are we in This Debt Crisis?
We cannot keep adding to This Debt Crisis.
5 million adults are considering taking out a payday loan over the next six months and that 48 per cent of the people who receive payday loans believe that the loans have made Their Debt Crisis worse.
Rather than try to borrow their way out of a Debt Crisis, the Government are being more pragmatic and sensible.
We face a Crisis of Debt and, as Martin Lewis has pointed out, we live in a time when the stigma of debt has somehow been diminished.
I am also delighted to be debating this important issue with the Opposition who have left the country with such debts, that the Government have little leeway to do whatthe hon. Member for Garston and Halewood (Maria Eagle) is proposing, which is to add more debt on to a Debt Crisis.
I find it incredibly frustrating and galling, as I think many other people do, to hear on one day the leader of the Labour party - the party that left this country in a worse financial state than any other Government ever have - profess that we must be responsible, even though Labour was irresponsible and did not have the custodian values that it needed in looking after our public finances, then the day after, to hear Labour talk about more spending and more debt in the middle of a Debt Crisis.
It is time to talk about how she would fund it, otherwise she has to accept that it would lead to more debt at a time when we are right in the middle of a Debt Crisis.
It must be just about the only political party in the world arguing that the way to get out of a Debt Crisis is by borrowing more money.
They turned instead to a Government who, despite the Biggest Debt Crisis ever, determined that the health and well-being of this country's people was paramount.
We are doing all of these things, but the Labour party has only one answer, and that is to deal with a Debt Crisis by borrowing more and adding to debt.
The ongoing sovereign Debt Crisis is having a chilling effect on our economy, too.
The Debt Crisis is therefore a strategic threat to the future security of our nation and to the security of the west.
It is true that the countries of the eurozone are now seeing that that is the sensible way forward and believe that you cannot buy your way out of a Debt Crisis.
Is it not the case that without such a plan, there will be no return to growth and no resolution of Europe's Debt Crisis?
Although there are no easy answers or quick fixes for Labour's Debt Crisis, the green economy now has a Government who are genuinely on its side for the long term.
Of course, we all believe that people should pay off all their debts, but when a person reaches a Crisis of Debt, priorities have to be made.
Will the Leader of the House agree to a debate on the logic or otherwise of the argument, presented by some Members, that the way to get out of a Debt Crisis is simply to borrow more money, and on the implications that would have on employment prospects?
When will they learn that they cannot borrow their way out of a Debt Crisis?
We cannot tax our way into prosperity any more than we can borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis.
We have inherited from the Labour party the worst deficit and Debt Crisis in this country's peacetime history; a structural deficit that would have been a crisis alone; an annual deficit from Labour's historical explosion in public spending; a crisis in the situation with debt as a percentage of gross domestic product; and interest payments that are set to rise, if we have not tackled them, by £76 billion a year - £1 in every £4 the Government spend.
Many people who see that the hon. Gentleman's party's strategy is to borrow in the middle of a Debt Crisis will wonder why he is asking that question.
They see us in a Debt Crisis and their solution is to keep on borrowing - keep on digging - and we all know who would pick up that bill.
We cannot spend our way out of a Debt Crisis.
It remains the case today, as we cope with the Biggest Debt Crisis of any of our lifetimes, and when the epicentre of the problem now lies on our doorstep in Europe and with some of our largest trading partners, including Ireland, the home of banks deeply connected to our own banking system.
The coalition Government have taken very difficult decisions in order to make sure that our public finances are back under control, and we are seen by the world to be dealing with Our Debt Crisis.
It is taking longer than anyone hoped to recover from the Biggest Debt Crisis of our lifetime, even taking account, for example, of the recent fall in unemployment.
It is taking longer than anyone hoped to recover from the biggest Debt Crisis of our lifetime, even taking account, for example, of the recent fall in unemployment.
I acknowledged in my opening remarks that it is taking longer than anyone hoped to recover from the Biggest Debt Crisis of our lifetime, even after the recent fall in unemployment.
I believe the truth is this: it is very difficult recovering from the deepest recession in living memory, accompanied as it was by a Debt Crisis.
The Debt Crisis has been long in making; the failure to regulate our banks has been long in making; the Government overspending has been long in making.
If we had listened to the plans of the Opposition, and spent more, borrowed more and increased our debt, that would have only made the Debt Crisis worse.
Does he agree that if we are getting out of a Debt Crisis we should not spend more money?
One does not fix a Debt Crisis by borrowing more money - it makes no sense.
The Labour Government left the country with no money and the biggest Debt Crisis of our lifetime.
It is true that the problems here in Europe and elsewhere in the global economy mean that it is taking us longer than anyone hoped to recover from the Biggest Debt Crisis of our lifetime, but the one thing that would make the situation even worse would be for us to abandon our credible plan and deliberately add more borrowing and even more debt.
It is interesting that the French President does not back the Labour view that the way out of a Debt Crisis is to borrow more, spend more and add to the debt.
The Prime Minister says that you cannot borrow your way out of a Debt Crisis, but unless you grow, your debts get bigger and your deficits get worse.
The solution to a Debt Crisis should never be more debt.
The Prime Minister says that you cannot borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis, but unless you grow, your debts get bigger and your deficits get worse.
Today's IMF report very precisely identified three reasons why the British economy still faces real headwinds: first, increasing global commodity prices last year, which was not something we could control; secondly, the uncertainties of the eurozone, which is also not under our control; and thirdly, the hangover of monumental public and private debt, which was, indeed, a Debt Crisis made in No.
Should the summit not have recognised that Greece has both a Debt Crisis and an exchange rate crisis?
I think it is true that the UK is weathering the Debt Crisis better than many countries, and we seem to understand why we have so much debt and what needs to be done to reduce it.
We are recovering from the biggest financial and Debt Crisis of our lifetimes.
I cannot possibly think, but I can think of some people sitting opposite me who do believe that the way to get out of a Debt Crisis is to borrow more - that is their policy.
At this stage, one has to acknowledge that only a fool would fail to see that the Government are in the headlock of a Debt Crisis, a eurozone meltdown and a struggling economy.
This is not just a Crisis of Debt, although it is surely that.
Here I refer to the Recent Debt Crisis of some member states of the European Union.
A Harris opinion poll this week on whether the measures will deal with the Debt Crisis in the eurozone showed that only 15% in the United Kingdom were confident that they would have any effect.
Confidence and stability in the eurozone are in our national interests and the resolution of the Debt Crisis in the eurozone would be the biggest single boost to business confidence that could happen in the British economy.
His only answer to a Debt Crisis is to spend more, borrow more, and put up the debt.
The burden on the remaining countries will increase, thereby increasing the likelihood that they, too, will face a Debt Crisis.
Does she also agree that if we are to trade our way out of the Present Debt Crisis, we need to lessen our dependence on the sclerotic eurozone economies and focus more on increasing our trade with the rest of the world, and that the EU framework needs to support that process?
All hon. Members know that we cannot borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis.
They are asking for more at a time when the Commission itself is forcing deep public spending cuts on member states that have the misfortune to be locked into a Debt Crisis.
To add insult to injury, along come the Government with the bright idea that reducing people's incomes even further will, first, somehow help to solve the Debt Crisis-I am not sure how taking away the ability of large swathes of the population to have enough money to spend, even on essentials, will put money in the Government's coffers, but that may be another story-and, secondly, will encourage lazy scroungers to get out of bed in the morning, when in fact two-thirds of the people affected by these cuts are already in work.
As the whole Committee knows, a recovery from a Debt Crisis is always much tougher, particularly when we also have the eurozone plunging into crisis because of its years of mismanagement.
I would also argue that the horse racing industry has a disproportionate impact in the rural economy - an area that the Government have rightly put at the heart of their economic mission to drive a rebalanced economy and to help this country claw its way out of the Debt Crisis that confronts us.
However, to retain credibility, as it is not possible to borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis, any extra spending has to be financed either by other spending cuts or by tax increases.
The Minister said in opening that it would not be possible to borrow our way out of Our Debt Crisis.
Does the Leader of the Opposition not accept that we cannot get out of a Debt Crisis by borrowing more money?
Neither can Europe ignore the fact that one of the reasons for the Debt Crisis is that the European model has been too expensive and the wealth generated by the European Union has not been enough to sustain it.
His answer to a Debt Crisis is to borrow more.
If this Government were to pursue the policies advocated by the Labour party and try to fix a Debt Crisis simply by borrowing more, the plight of the individuals whom the hon. Gentleman mentions would be infinitely worse.
We learned a little later that it was a Debt Crisis.
Thirdly, it is bold in setting out the platform at the base of an industrial policy for a sustainable economic recovery in which future generations - particularly the current young generation, who will have to deal with the Debt Crisis - can have confidence.
With this vision, people can be confident that we are tackling the Debt Crisis in a way that is fair and that will allow their children to be optimistic for a better future.
We have to remember that Mr Portes, like Mr Blanchflower, is an arch-Keynsian and proponent of plan B - borrowing more money in a Debt Crisis.
We have already had a Debt Crisis.
I could deliver the standard speech that we give in such circumstances about how it is a strange way to deal with a Debt Crisis to try to increase borrowing.
Does the Prime Minister agree that one does not solve a Debt Crisis by borrowing more, and that for the Opposition to have any credibility they need to acknowledge the mess they made, apologise to my constituents, and just say sorry?
25 million jobs in the private sector and have helped to create 250,000 new small businesses and 500,000 apprentices in the past year alone, and that the strategy proposed from the Opposition Front Bench would jeopardise this by borrowing more in a Debt Crisis?
For all the noises off that we have heard from the Opposition in this debate, they still have not got the point that the answer to a Debt Crisis cannot be to borrow more.
We should remember the country's Debt Crisis.
The appalling Debt Crisis that we face and the crisis in youth unemployment that we inherited from the previous Government make this mission more urgent and vital than ever.
As we know from macro-economic policy, we cannot borrow our way out of a Debt Crisis.
We have an enormous opportunity to trade our way out of the Debt Crisis by plugging into the fastest growing emerging markets around the world, particularly in the life sciences, in food, in medicine, and in energy.
We have heard a lot of arguments today, especially fromthe right hon. Member for Neath (Mr Hain), suggesting that Labour had nothing to do with the Debt Crisis and the deficit this Government inherited in 2010.
All this is fuelling a Debt Crisis and is a job creation programme for bailiffs.
The so-called euro crisis is a Debt Crisis.
We are in a Debt Crisis of historic proportions because for far too long profit-maximising banks have been lending money into existence as debt with too few effective restraints on their conduct and all the risks of doing so forced on the taxpayer by the power of the state.
The hon. Lady's constituents are benefiting from the fact that the economy is growing, our deficit is coming down and we are creating jobs, but we are dealing with the Debt Crisis which her Government put in place in our country.
The idea that the last Labour Government did not leave the country with a Debt Crisis is laughable.
Fundamentally, it contributes to a very real risk of a repeated Debt Crisis as a direct result of the cuts.
When we talk about Our Debt Crisis and the need to reduce spending, we seem to airbrush away the fact that we owe £375 billion to ourselves - debt created by ourselves.