madam president i am delighted to address this parliament once more as the recently elected leader of the british conservative delegation
i assure you that in the run-up to the european elections i will strongly argue for the kind of europe my party wishes to see as well as being very critical indeed of the socialist europe which mr rasmussen who has just left us and his colleagues wish to see in their election manifesto published this week
it certainly makes very depressing reading
two of my colleagues were in mumbai with the trade delegation last week and were in great danger
may i put on record not only our condemnation of those atrocities but also our thanks to the french presidency in particular for the prompt action and protection which they afforded to the members of the european parliament on that delegation including my own british colleagues
the council has a full agenda the economic and financial crisis the treaty of lisbon climate change and the future of the cap
i will only concern myself with economic issues now
in the united kingdom the government has announced the largest level of borrowing in our history
our chancellor will double the national debt to gbp one trillion in the next five years
he has also announced giveaways of gbp twenty billion while taking back gbp forty billion in higher taxes
his so-called fiscal stimulus will ensure that our recession as the commission has rightly said will be the longest and deepest of any in the eu
only in countries with healthy public finances can a stimulus of the kind announced be of assistance
in the case of the uk we are now saddled with massive borrowing for the foreseeable future
last week we had details of the commission's important recovery plan which i believe contains some very positive items but i fear that this initiative alone may not deal with the immediate problems
the focus should be to get the banks to lend to each other and to businesses and ordinary people
with unemployment set to soar we must build confidence not leave a legacy of debt and higher taxes for our children and grandchildren to contend with
