Economy: Productivity

Lord Tebbit Excerpts

Wednesday 16th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, the noble Lord asked a number of questions and I shall plump for the middle one. I assume that many Members of the House have not had a chance to digest the details of today’s Budget, but I am very pleased to say that we are accelerating our infrastructure plans, on which there is already quite impressive independent evidence. I could highlight a number of things that have been announced today. One that is very dear to my heart is that we are accelerating—compared with before, and taking on board the full recommendations of the independent National Infrastructure Commission—so-called HS3. In particular, the target is for the train journey time from Leeds to Manchester to drop to 30 minutes.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that we could set an example in this House of increasing productivity if we asked rather shorter questions?

[Lord O'Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, as a novice and relative newcomer, I sometimes quite like long questions as it gives me less time to answer them. However, as a general intention, it would be welcomed.