Lord Davies of Brixton
Main Page: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Davies of Brixton's debates with the HM Treasury
(2 days, 16 hours ago)
Lords ChamberI thank my noble friend for this Statement; the real meat will come tomorrow. I also thank noble Lords opposite for reminding us of their gross irresponsibility and refusal to accept any responsibility for this situation. When you have fiscal rules that distinguish general expenditure and investment in one way or another, you need a clear definition of investment. The problem is that pinning down such a definition is difficult in practice. When we on the Economic Affairs Committee took evidence from Joseph Stiglitz, he drew attention to this, instancing the possibility that spending more money on nurses would count as investment towards the sort of growth we need in the economy.
My noble friend makes an extremely interesting point. I am grateful for his support for what I have set out and will take away his point to give it further consideration.