Air Passenger Duty

Jim Sheridan Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

I apologise in advance to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and to the general public, for the repetitive nature of the comments I am about to make. I genuinely believe that the more people say these things, and the more often we say them, the more the Government will listen.

APD was introduced under the guise of an environmental tax, but all hon. Members know that it simply is not an environmental tax. No money from it goes back into the aviation industry or into the environment—nothing is ring-fenced. However, it is discriminatory against people who live north of the Watford Gap, because they have to pay twice, which is grossly unfair. From that point of view, will the Minister consider the possibility of ensuring that people do not pay APD twice, even if he does not abolish or freeze it, to ensure that it does not discriminate against people?

The APD has a significant cost impact on passengers, and therefore on the UK’s competitiveness and on the profitability of the UK aviation industry. The UK has the highest air passenger tax in the world. Taking air tax, air ticket taxes and airport charges together, the World Economic Forum ranks the UK 134th out of 138 countries. Only six European countries tax passengers for international air travel, and UK rates are twice the level of the next most expensive tax, which is levied in Germany.

A number of colleagues have identified examples of APD. A Chinese family of four flying to the UK must pay £648 APD to fly premium economy. They would pay only £134 to fly to France, and £141 to fly to Germany. A British family of four holidaying in Florida must pay £260 APD to fly economy. A German family of four would pay £141, and a French family would pay just £133.

We should also look at comparators from other European countries. Aviation duty considered by the Belgian Government was never implemented because of concerns about the impact on industry. In the Netherlands it has already been abolished. In Germany, it has led to a significant reaction from airlines, including the withdrawal of low-fare airline capacity. Denmark briefly introduced a ticket tax, but it has since been withdrawn, and of course we know what is happening in Ireland. In Malta, a duty was removed following a legal challenge from the European Commission, with the tax being described as “discriminatory”.

Several hon. Members have asked for an impact assessment, but that has been being carried out for the past 18 years. Currently, the aviation industry contributes £49.6 billion, or 3.6% to UK GDP, supports 921,000 UK jobs, and pays more than £7.9 billion in tax. Glasgow airport in my constituency provides 5,000 jobs both directly and indirectly.

As has already been said, the APD will cost Scotland more than 2 million passengers per annum. Up to 5% of long-haul demand may be lost. There will be a loss of competitiveness, which is important to the economy, and it will have an impact on the tourism industry, with more than 148,000 trips and £77 million in visitor expenditure lost over the next three years. By 2016, APD will cost the Scottish economy up to £210 million in lost tourism spend per annum. Those figures are from York Aviation.

The aviation industry is under severe pressure. Hon. Members may recall the recent terrorist attacks in Glasgow. BAA, the airport authority, has had to make extensive investment in security to make Glasgow airport more secure, and the airlines have also had to contribute. There are significant pressures on airports such as Glasgow to compete, and both management and the workers whose jobs are on the line are extremely concerned about the competitive nature of aviation. We have already heard about the competition from railways. Like the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Mr Dodds), I am approached by people in airport lounges who tell me that they have done an assessment of travelling from Glasgow to London and it takes almost the same time to fly—given the time it takes to get to the airport, go through security, get on the plane, get to London, get the Paddington Express—as it does on the train. The danger is that we could lose the aviation industry as it stands.

There are other arguments against the APD. Some 200,000 people have written to their MPs calling for an impact assessment, and that is crucially important. Some 90,000 overseas travellers have written to the Treasury asking for similar measures. APD does not do what it was supposed to do. It is not an environmental tax—it goes straight to the Treasury. The three largest airports in Scotland are putting pressure on Members of Parliament to ask the UK Government to look at the tax and do something to help the people in the aviation industry to retain their jobs.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

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[Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)]

I note that no Member has spoken in favour of APD, which I think says a lot. In the midst of a recession, when the cult of austerity is starving the economy, taxes such as APD are bleeding the economy. That is not just my view; it is the view of those in the frustrated aviation and airport sector in Scotland, who see themselves as hostages of a Government policy here at Westminster that is damaging their sector and, by logical extension, the wider economy.

Amanda McMillan, the managing director of Glasgow airport, has said:

“Due to the size of the market in Scotland, we will always find it difficult to attain and sustain new routes, and this situation is compounded…further by APD which simply serves to artificially depress demand and dissuade airlines from basing aircraft here.

Unless APD is reformed, people travelling to and from Scotland—who must fly due to the lack of feasible alternatives—will continue to face some of the highest levels of taxation in Europe which is clearly a disincentive to travel.”

[Jim Sheridan]

If APD were devolved to Scotland, and Scotland then cut the tax, would there not be consequences for the Barnett formula?

[Mr MacNeil]

If APD were devolved to Scotland, the economy would grow. I should like all taxes to be devolved, so that the benefits of the policies introduced by the Scottish Government could go to the Scottish Exchequer. That is a logical extension, and it is what is happening in all the other countries. I am sure that, given the level of APD in the United Kingdom, no other country would be as foolish as the Government whom the hon. Gentleman supports at Westminster. He wants a Tory Government to have these powers over Scotland, and, given that he is a Labour MP, I find that quite shocking.

It is calculated that APD will have cost the Scottish economy £210 million in lost spending by 2016. So short-sighted is this policy that it will end up with our losing up to £50 million in other taxes through economic activity that will not take place. The Federation of Small Businesses has been damning of the UK policy on this tax:

“The Government’s determination to tax air passengers has resulted in a sustained negative impact on businesses as well as on leisure travel. IATA reported in June 2012 that UK passenger numbers have declined slightly over the past four years at a period when Germany, France and the Netherlands saw growth of between 2-4%.”

That must have damaged our economy.

The UK has embraced this tax in a helter-skelter fashion. It is regressive and it hits the poor disproportionately. It is a poll tax of the skies. It is felt less by millionaires in the Cabinet and elsewhere than it is by others.

Other countries have been wiser in their approach. Some countries that have introduced APD, such as Germany and Austria, have done so at a lower level. The Germans are economically canny, of course, and after they introduced it, they reduced it, rather than increasing it as the UK has done. We must welcome the fact that Aer Lingus is planning to fly to Edinburgh and therefore give us more choice, but there is still the handicap of high APD.

King Louis XIV of France was known as the sun king, and perhaps his sunny disposition was in part due to this quote from his Finance Minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert:

“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.”

For the benefit of Members, I have translated that passage from the French. We have not had much of a sunny disposition from the Treasury for the past two years, but there has been plenty of hissing—and booing—in its direction.

Since 2007, APD has risen by 160% on short-haul flights and between 225% and 360% on long-haul flights. The Aberdeen Airport managing director has said:

“At Aberdeen Airport we run a real risk of losing around 200,000 passengers by 2016 through this damaging tax. Each recent increase in APD has had a dramatic impact upon what we, as airports, have achieved and could have achieved without APD. It is imperative that the UK government undertake a detailed and comprehensive review into APD with the utmost urgency, and at the very least freeze APD whilst that is taking place.”

Gordon Dewar of Edinburgh Airport adds:

“This tax has now hit its tipping point where the damage it is doing to Scotland far outweighs the benefits. This cannot stand and must be reviewed as a matter of urgency.”

No wonder people are concerned, especially as the Calman commission recommended this policy be devolved in 2009 and the MSP representing the Edinburgh airport area, Colin Keir, says:

“APD hits tourism and business and we need to have the power at Holyrood to maintain competitiveness with other countries and fairness to those travellers who have to use our airports.”

The economic mismanagement from Westminster is frustrating people, especially as this Parliament and Government will not devolve this policy to Scotland. I tell Parliament and the wider country, however, that in 2014 people will have a chance to have APD devolved and to give Scotland a competitive edge. After the independence referendum of 2014, I look forward to the devolution of APD, along with everything else, by one means or another.

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[Sajid Javid]

I thank my hon. Friend. I will come to that point in a moment.

As I said, we have no plans at this point for further consultation, but we are keen to ensure that the aviation sector can continue to enable economic growth and support jobs across the country. APD makes an essential contribution to the public finances and to this Government’s plan to create a stable platform for growth.

This has been an excellent debate that has given me and the Government much food for thought. There have been excellent contributions from Members in all parts of the House, and I assure them that I have been listening very carefully. Should the motion pass; I have a feeling that it might well do so—

[Jim Sheridan]

Before the hon. Gentleman concludes, does he accept that it is grossly unfair for British people to pay APD twice, depending on where they live?

[Sajid Javid]

I thank the hon. Gentleman. We have looked at these issues in the consultation, and I believe that I have addressed them.

I have listened carefully to the debate, and the many thoughtful contributions from Members on both sides of the House have been very valuable. Should the motion pass, then of course the Government will take note of Parliament’s view; it is important that we listen to the views of Parliament. Let me conclude by thanking my hon. Friends the Members for Witham and for Crawley for raising this important issue with the House.

Pay and Consultants (Public Sector)

Jim Sheridan Excerpts

Tuesday 13th March 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mr Slaughter]

That is disappointing. I wish that both local government and councillors were covered. The leader of Kensington and Chelsea is paid a six-figure salary. The days of councillors being volunteers or being paid small amounts have gone. The review should also cover health trusts, non-executive directors of health trusts, the whole panoply of organisations that surround the public sector bodies, the Local Government Association and the Local Government Improvement and Development board, because those are the organisations in which abuses are likely to take place. We are talking about bodies that recruit people who have retired from the public sector and who, because of restrictions on their earnings thereafter—such earnings affect pension rights—will be prone to adopt these devices to avoid being classed as employees.

The figures for high pay in the public sector speak for themselves. The Chief Secretary conceded that he had cognisance of more than 180 civil servants on packages in excess of £142,500. I commend the work of the TaxPayers Alliance—I have been doing that quite often recently—in publishing the “Town Hall Rich List”, which shows that the highest paid chief executives, who are, I think, in Wandsworth, are on around £350,000 a year. That list of shame, which is regularly updated and published, is a great public service.

Let me just say, though, that as someone who has spent 20 years in local government, I have worked with some very fine public servants who did not do the job primarily for money. I even had a chief executive who capped his own salary, which is not something that we see much of at the moment. However, I have also had the unedifying experience of seeing the last chief executive of Hammersmith and Fulham, which is one of the smallest unitary local authorities in the country, retire on a salary of £281,000 a year. That salary had been increased by £11,000 in the last year of service—the salaries of everyone else in the organisation had been frozen—in order, I suspect, to enable him to retire on the maximum pension. The authority would not divulge the details of that pension but the House of Commons Library calculated that it would be substantially in excess of £100,000 a year. In addition, he received a lump sum payment of a sum much larger than £250,000 a year. To my mind, that is not where local government should be.

I will return to the issue of consultants. I say again that I am grateful to a number of organisations for their help, particularly the PCS union, which takes an interest in this subject.

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

I want to make a point before my hon. Friend moves on from consultants. Before I do so, Mr Howarth, I give early apologies that I have to leave Westminster Hall early as I am on Select Committee business with the Culture, Media and Sport Committee this morning. Coincidentally, the Committee will be taking evidence from the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey), who is the Minister at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who is closing libraries up and down the country. Can my hon. Friend just clarify his earlier comments about chief executives being awarded something like a 17% pay increase? Is that accurate?

[Mr Slaughter]

It must be accurate—it is in The Daily Telegraph.

The PCS union quantifies the amount spent by Government on consultants at more than £1 billion; I think that that amount is based on figures from the National Audit Office. Before Government Members jump up and down, I accept that the figure paid to consultants has been too high for too long, but that is not any reason for not addressing the issue.

The PCS union says that, when hundreds of thousands of jobs are being cut in the public sector and its members on low pay are being forced to take pay cuts, it is not right that, for example, the Ministry of Justice—an organisation with which I am reasonably familiar—spent £43 million on consultants between May and November 2011. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, or LASPO, is currently being mauled in the House of Lords, particularly about the issue of social welfare legal aid. If that figure of £43 million were annualised, the cost of consultants to the MOJ would effectively pay for the entire cuts in social welfare legal aid. So, all the agonising about cuts to citizens advice bureaux, law centres and to the funding for disabled people seeking advice on welfare benefits, housing or whatever would be unnecessary, if only the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice could address his habit for consultants.

Scotland Bill

Jim Sheridan Excerpts

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stewart Hosie]

As the Minister has pointed out, there is a large number of new clauses and amendments in this group. I intend to give them a decent airing, not least because I was chastised by the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin) in a recent newspaper article for speaking for barely 14 minutes in a previous debate. I would not want to disappoint her by not providing closely argued contributions on the new clauses and amendments tonight. It is also worth putting it on record that barely three hours for a Report stage is quite inadequate.

Our amendment 29 and new clause 9 deal with corporation tax, about which the Minister went on at some length. This is a tax levied on profits and the Scottish Government are seeking to devolve the competence to use it as key policy lever to promote economic activity in Scotland. It is important to focus not on the dry detail of the amendments, but on what we and any Scottish Government would do with the powers. We believe that corporation tax can be a key element in the country’s overall economic strategy and can promote economic growth and job creation by enhancing international competitiveness and encouraging innovation and investment.

We believe that the case for devolving corporation tax is clear. Over the past 30 years, Scotland’s economy has grown more slowly relative to both the UK and the average of small EU countries than it ought to have done. We believe that for Scotland to fulfil its economic potential, additional levers are required and corporation tax is, I believe, a key mechanism. It can be an important tool in helping to support increased business start-ups, increased business research and development and investment, and in encouraging more firms to locate their headquarters in Scotland—the very reasons, I suspect, why the UK Government announced a lower corporation tax rate and a strategy for reducing it further.

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

Far be it for me to be a cynic, but could it be that both Governments—the UK and the Scottish Government—wish to reduce corporation tax to appease the big business people who make donations to their political parties?

[Stewart Hosie]

No. That would be extraordinarily cynical, and not something that even the hon. Gentleman in his daftest moments would actually believe to be true—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr Donohoe) says from a sedentary position that the hon. Gentleman does believe it. That worries me even more. I suspect that that kind of attitude from Labour sends a signal that Britain and Scotland are not open for business, which is a dreadful signal to send out.

We also believe that corporation tax can be used to support the development of new industries, which is vital. As it stands, the Bill contains no new effective levers for economic growth. The UK Government have made it clear that the Bill is primarily about improving financial accountability and political governance. There is no problem with either of those things, but we need economic development as well—and the tools to do the job. We are firmly of the view, as are the Scottish Government, that any transfer of powers to Scotland must include real economic levers to promote jobs and growth.

The argument from the UK Government that we cannot have corporation tax powers might appear rather contradictory. Clearly, there is increasing support for the principle of devolving the responsibility for corporation tax—not least to Northern Ireland, where it is currently under active review.

With those points in mind, I back the Scottish Government in seeking devolved competence for corporation tax to be used as a key policy lever to promote economic activity in Scotland. We are seeking the responsibility to vary both the corporation tax base and the tax rate, with the base defining the element that is subject or liable to be taxed—the bulk of profits, netting out allowances and so forth—and the tax rate being the amount of taxable profit required to be paid during each accounting period. At the moment, that is estimated to be about £2.8 billion for Scotland on 2008-09 figures— and for very good reason that excludes North sea corporation tax. It comes in at about 6.5% of the total tax revenue in Scotland. We believe that the full devolution of corporation tax with an appropriate reduction in the block grant, which covers the Azores issue, would provide the Scottish Government with a new lever to promote growth and jobs.

The position of the Scottish Parliament Scotland Bill Committee was established in a very clear conclusion:

“The Committee’s view is that if a scheme to vary corporation tax were to be available in some of the devolved countries of the UK as a tool of the UK Government’s regional economic policy, it should be available as an option for a Scottish Government to use also.”

That is incredibly important. Now that it is clear that such a tool is being considered for Northern Ireland in the UK Government’s consultation on “Rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy”, it follows that consideration must now be given to devolving corporation tax to Scotland.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stewart Hosie]

I do not want a race to the bottom, but I do believe in tax competition. It is a pity that the hon. Gentleman and his new-found friends do not.

I must now move on from corporation tax to excise duty. Amendment 37 would ensure that provisions relating to alcohol excise came into force two months after the enactment of the Bill. New clause 19 would amend the Scotland Act 1998 so that alcohol duties became an exception to the general reservation in that regard.

All excise duties are currently levied by the UK Government. Alcohol duty is one of the most important excise duties levied in the UK. It is estimated to raise approximately £800 million a year in Scotland, less than 2% of the total tax yield in and on behalf of Scotland. In addition to raising revenues for the Exchequer, one of the key aims of the duty is to reduce excessive consumption of alcohol, which has been proved to lead to a variety of health and social problems. In the current devolution framework, the Scottish budget typically picks up the cost of addressing those problems through police, health and some social welfare costs expenditures. That is done entirely within the Scottish block. Devolving responsibility for excise duty to Scotland would help to ensure that the tax system for alcohol consumption was consistent with the alcohol policy of the Scottish Government and equipped to tackle one of the greatest health and social challenges facing Scotland.

[Jim Sheridan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

[Stewart Hosie]

Certainly.

[Jim Sheridan]

As chair of the all-party parliamentary Scotch whisky and spirits group, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that the Scottish whisky industry is deeply concerned about his proposals. What worries the industry are the administration costs. It would be necessary to designate the final destination of the product, and, even more worryingly, Members of Parliament would bear the additional burden of taking carry-outs from London to their constituencies in Glasgow.

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[Stewart Hosie]

There are always borders. The hon. Gentleman was presumably one of the 28 Lib Dems who backed us in 2009. I am pretty sure some of the Lib Dems in the Scottish Parliament now back minimum pricing. I ask for a wee bit of constituency in terms of the policy therefore, and given there are only five Lib Dem MSPs, it should not be too difficult to do a quick phone around.

I turn to the topic of capital borrowing and amendments 26 to 29. We all know that infrastructure investment is an essential contributor to productivity and economic growth. That is presumably why the Chancellor of the Exchequer made great play of spending £2 billion more on capital projects in the comprehensive spending review period than the previous Labour Administration had planned to spend. In the short term, such expenditure can boost economic growth, total output and employment. Over the long term, capital investment, both public and private, is a key driver of productivity, competitiveness and long-term economic growth.

Public sector investment that enhances a country’s physical, technological and digital infrastructure can increase the productive capacity of the economy and drive private sector growth and investment. Indeed, we know that direct capital investment would save or create twice as many jobs as the same amount of investment used for a VAT cut, such is the scale of the economic multipliers of direct capital investment.

[Jim Sheridan]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that this does create jobs. Can he therefore justify his Government’s cancellation of the Glasgow airport rail link project?

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[Pete Wishart]

I have said that I will not give way again, and I will not, even to the right hon. and learned Gentleman. Others wish to speak.

There are real difficulties, but the solution offered by the Secretary of State will not be acceptable to the Scottish Parliament. The most critical aspect of the Bill, however, involves not the unpalatable measures that we have discussed today, but the measures that the Bill omits: measures for which the Scottish people voted when the Bill was last considered by the Scottish Parliament. What they want are job-creating powers and control over the Crown Estates so that we can further the renewables revolution in Scotland.

Given our mandate, the Scottish National party will revisit those issues in the future. On balance, however, we accept that the Bill contains substantial new powers, and we will not oppose its Third Reading.

I suppose that we can look at the Bill in two stages—pre and post its testing by the Scottish people. The Calman parties stood on their record and presented it as a major constitutional issue when they fought the election, while the Scottish National party stood on a programme involving the creation of new jobs and powers for the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish people gave the Scottish National party an overwhelming mandate to pursue that agenda, and we will continue to present the case for real job-creating powers. We will not be satisfied until we have those powers in the Scottish Parliament.

The Bill will now go to the House of Lords before it is returned to the Scottish Parliament for a further legislative consent motion. I say to the Secretary of State and the Government—

[Jim Sheridan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Pete Wishart]

I will not give way again. I say to the Secretary of State—

[Jim Sheridan]

rose—

[Pete Wishart]

I am not going to give way to the hon. Gentleman. Must I say that a third time?

I say to the Secretary of State that he should not use the fact that there are no Scottish National party members in the House of Lords to introduce any further unpalatable measures, because that would be totally unacceptable. It is democratically elected Members who should decide the fate of our nation, not unelected appointees, donors and cronies.

[Jim Sheridan]

rose—

[Pete Wishart]

I am not going to give way to the hon. Gentleman. As he is standing right next to me, I do not know why he cannot hear me.

Eurozone Financial Assistance

Jim Sheridan Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Cash]

I could not agree more, and a course of Alcoholics Anonymous would not be out of place.

It is not just the European Scrutiny Committee that said the position was legally unsound or unlawful. Madame Lagarde herself, the prospective head of the IMF, said on this issue on 17 December:

“We violated all the rules because we wanted to close ranks and really rescue the eurozone.”

This is a stitch-up of the British people to maintain the so-called solidarity for further integration of a failing European project. That is what lies at the heart of the matter.

Why are people protesting and rioting all over Europe —in Madrid, Greece, Italy and the list is growing? What is not growing is the European economy and the reason is that the sort of policies needed—here and in all the other countries—to engender growth to deal with the deficit that the Government rightly say we have to address are impossible to achieve without generating the growth that is needed by repealing legislative burdens and generating policies that the integrationists in Europe simply refuse to allow. I would go further and say that the coalition in this country cannot achieve growth simply because the Liberal Democrats, as part of the coalition, have silenced the Prime Minister’s promise to repatriate burdens on business. It is called 56 votes and the keys to No. 10.

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman might have heard, as I did, the Liberal part of the coalition talking clearly about what might happen “if” these loans are repaid, which suggests some ambiguity and concern within the coalition Government about whether the loans will be repaid. He will also recall that when the Conservatives were in opposition, they opposed the bail-out of Northern Rock. What has changed between then and now?

[Mr Cash]

Very simply, we now have a new coalition Government who have been seeking to achieve a reduction in the deficit, but they are not doing the accompanying things that are required in respect of the failing European project. That is the key problem. There are young people throughout Europe—and, for that matter, in this country—who simply cannot get jobs because companies will not take them on as a result of European employment regulations and because the deficit in the public sector cannot be stabilised without reasonable tax revenues from the small business community, which is being deliberately destroyed by the refusal to repeal the burdens that strangle it.

In the meantime, Germany has had unit labour costs of a mere 2% on average over the last 10 years, whereas the average for the rest of the European member states is between 25% and 30%. It is an impossible situation, making it impossible for Europe—this entity that the integrationists believe in—to be able to compete with the BRIC countries. Germany invests in cheaper labour markets in Europe, with 67% of all its trade being with Europe, while 45% of all European trade with China is German.

The reality is that what we are debating today is symptomatic of a failure in the coalition Government’s strategy. We are not going to get out of this problem—I say this in all sincerity and in the great hope that people will listen at last—as long as we go on with this failing project. We will not get out of the mess. Today’s debate is an opportunity to get the issue straight. As Michael Stürmer, the chief correspondent of Die Welt argued, the dream is over and the Maastricht treaty has to be revised, but the coalition has no will to do so. The European bail-out of Portugal is a symptom of this deeper problem.

Bank Bonuses

Jim Sheridan Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The former Chancellor has clearly made his views known, and I would suggest that he has more credibility on the subject than the shadow Chancellor.

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

While the Chancellor acquiesces to the bankers’ demands, his Government propose to cut the sick pay of workers who are genuinely off sick. May I therefore ask the Chancellor: where is the fairness in that?

[Mr Osborne]

Where is the fairness in a record budget deficit? That is what we have to address. We are taking difficult measures; I know that every single one is opposed by the Opposition, who created that deficit, but that says more about them than it does about our plan.