Lord Clarke of Nottingham (Con)

My Lords, I agree with the noble Viscount, Lord Chandos, and others that, in principle, it is not a very good idea to have a system of taxation in which you suddenly start providing dozens of exemptions for particularly chosen groups when it is introduced. Taxation should be simple and collected in the most straightforward fashion across the whole economy, although there will always be bits that are subject to different effects of such taxes. I will be supporting these amendments, mainly as a symbolic sign that I disapprove extremely strongly of the choice of tax rise that the Government made in the Budget. In fact, this increase in employers’ national insurance has had a serious, damaging effect on very important sections of the economy as a whole. Many small and medium-sized businesses—and many giant ones in labour-intensive parts of the economy—are being badly affected at a time when many other features of our financial crisis are affecting them as well. We had some exchanges in the House a few moments ago about the withdrawal of the investment proposals by BMW in Oxford. This country is not an attractive place for investment at the moment, yet we desperately need investment if we are to begin to recover from the appalling stagflation in which the economy is now stuck.