Public Expenditure: Reserve Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Public Expenditure: Reserve

Lord Newby Excerpts
Monday 9th May 2011

(13 years, 5 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Newby Portrait Lord Newby
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My Lords, do not the comments of Standard & Poor in the US on the possible downgrading of American debt show the folly of building up too great a deficit, however tempting it might be to spend more money on things which we would all like to see?

Lord Sassoon Portrait Lord Sassoon
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Yes, indeed. As ever, my noble friend Lord Newby gets it absolutely right. Fiscal discipline is absolutely the watchword of this Government. I should say that the Armed Forces will get all the expenditure that they need in relation to net additional costs of military operations in Libya and elsewhere, but that is the exception to the rule.