Hon Member For Kensington And The Economist

EDM number 86 in 1994-95, proposed by Ken Livingstone on 22/11/1994.

That this House notes that the Economist's economic forecast for Britain in 1995 is headlined 'A lost last chance' and states that 'the best is over for Britain. The economy will decelerate in 1995, living standards will slip... falls in unemployment will slow to a crawl... the country will slide back to its traditional place near the bottom of the international pile'; further notes that the article draws attention to the fact that Britain's interest rates are higher than in any core countries of the European Union and that by 1996 Britain's growth rate will be the lowest amongst G7 nations except for France; agrees that the cause of this problem is correctly identified as macro-economic incompetence by the Chancellor who has failed to relax monetary policy and the Bank of England, which has given misguided advice about inflation, and the consequence of this incompetence is likely to be that Britain will slip to the bottom of the G7 pile in terms of productivity and gross domestic product per head with Britain's industrial base more likely to shrink than grow and a reduction of investment in the service sector; and finally invites the honourable Member for Kensington, who is the editor of this journal, to withdraw his support from the Government which is responsible for this mess.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs.