I am not wholly in agreement with that argument, though I fully share the hon. Gentleman's pleasure at seeing the scheme announced. I would certainly have wished to see it earlier. I am seeking to argue, I hope with conviction, that this is not a scheme that has been conjured out of electoral air in the last few days in an attempt to maximise the number of hon. Members who will vote against the motion of confidence tonight. This is a scheme for which many people have been campaigning for a long time, and I am extremely glad that it has been presented. Given the defeat of the motion tonight, I hope that this measure will be enacted and will reach the statute book within a period of weeks.

The motion that we are discussing offers an opportunity for those contributing and listening to view the future of this country. If we do that objectively, on the basis of the opening speeches that were made, it is fair to say that the Leader of the Opposition, who talked dismissively about yesterday's jobs, seemed also to be talking in terms of yesterday's problems and offering yesterday's solutions. Many of my constituents, who are fully aware of the very difficult and changing industrial world in which they live, and in which Britain finds itself, will not find much comfort in the words of the right hon. Lady today.

My constituents recognise that they work in industries that suffer from growing import penetration. They are industries that face the challenge of new manufacturing countries around the world—particularly in Asia—which exploit low wages, enjoy all sorts of subsidies and exploit poor conditions in terms of trade union organisation and health and safety legislation. My constituents also know that they work in industries that are facing difficulties because of the adverse trading position that Britain has with the Common Market. They realise that if their jobs are to survive, and if there is to be a job for them tomorrow, there must be increased planning of employment and industry.

We must have alternative job programmes if workers who are to be displaced from the textile industry within the whole of the Common Market over the next few years are to find employment. I think particularly of Yorkshire and Lancashire, the area that I represent.

My constituents and the people of this country also know that if alternative employment is to be found, it will happen very largely as a result of Government intervention and public financial assistance. They realise—I think that this is increasingly recognised, certainly on the Labour Benches—that we shall see a new expansion of our economy only if we successfully mobilise the torrent of enthusiasm of all our workpeople and do not simply seek to exclude those who create the wealth and listen only to the top echelons of management and those who control big business.

For instance, many of my constituents recognise what the Government have done to protect their employment. I refer especially to the temporary employment subsidy, which has been one of the most sucessful weapons in tackling unemployment. Certainly compared with many overseas countries it has been successful. It has protected the jobs of about 500,000 workers, and the net cost of doing so has been virtualy nil. I commend the Government for replacing that scheme with the short-time working compensation scheme, which will do a great deal again to protect the jobs of my constituents and others like them in the textile, clothing and footwear industries. It will also be extremely important for many other workers, including those in engineering.

I believe that many of my constituents will look upon this debate as reflecting an unreal appreciation of the world, because the Conservative Opposition have sought to argue that Britain is the only country in the world that is suffering from structural unemployment and seeing an attack on its manufacturing industries and all the other things about which Labour Members are concerned. That is an illusion. I believe that many people are beginning to realise that we are in the middle of a deep-seated, fundamental crisis of the economic system of the Western world. That is the challenge that we face. That is the challenge of the 1980s, to which I hope the policies of this Government and, I hope, a successive Labour Government, will be addressed.

We look in vain for the real alternative policies of the Tory Party. All we can do is to look at some of the important signposts. Some of us remember the most important signpost of all, erected some time ago by the right hon. Member for Leeds, North-East (Sir K. Joseph), when he said—he has never sought to contradict is—that all subsidies and grants do great harm. We must take that as an important signpost of real Tory economic and industrial policy. They think that all subsidies and grants do great harm.

The second important signpost seems to be that of dramatic tax cuts. This seems to be the only policy upon which the Tory party is prepared to stand. We are told that this will resolve all our problems very quickly, will regenerate industry, reduce unemployment, somehow stop the massive import penetration that we see in industry after industry, and leave our nation as an industrial haven of peace, plenty and prosperity.

That is the message of the Tory Party, and it has been its message over a number of years. Although we were told by the new hon. Member for Knutsford (Mr. Bruce-Gardyne) that this was a message that appealed to many of his electors in that by-election, it has not met with total support from some economic commentators. I refer to a particularly perceptive article by Victor Keegan in The Guardian of 19 March, which was headlined "Danger signs on Maggie's road back to Selsdon". In the course of that article, Mr. Keegan said: What then of the Conservatives' policy of cutting taxes? This is an essential, indeed the key part, of their strategy of industrial regeneration—as, of course, it was with the original Selsdon policies.As a taxpayer I shall be the last to object and there certainly is a case for saying that our marginal rates of taxation are at least unfair and possibly, also, a disincentive. Having said that, one should not delude oneself for a moment into thinking that sharp reductions in taxation are the elixir which will transform the country's prospects. There is not the slightest evidence for this.For a start Britain's 100 years of industrial decline have embraced long periods when our taxation rates were far less onerous in themselves and compared with other countries without showing much impact on growth. Second, those countries which most closely correspond to Sir Keith Joseph's ideals of taxation (the United States, Japan, France and Germany—suitably adjusted for 'guest' workers) have similar unemployment rates to our own. The idea that unemployment in this country would somehow be radically different if taxation were not so onerous has not been proven". As more people begin to examine the alternative policies proposed by the Tory Party, I believe that more and more will realise that the case that they propose is not proven, on many grounds. In my view, and increasingly in the view of many other people, the Tory Party will find that its case on reduced taxation is not proven. It will find the alternative of a sharp increase on VAT not proven. It will certainly find its argument for a radical reduction in public expenditure not proven.

I believe that the Conservatives will definitely find that their alternatives for stimulating employment are not proven. As they look around and see the need for company after company to be injected with public financial assistance to enable them to survive and to offer jobs, I believe that they will increasingly find their policy in that regard not proven. Most of all, they will find it difficult to accept that the blithe promises about the benefits that at some stage we shall receive from the Common Market have been proven. It is clear for all to see that the drain, in terms of our financial resources, our balance of payments and other parts of our economy, has been as a direct result of our entry into the Common Market.

This motion deserves to be defeated. I trust that it will be. I hope that this Government will continue to carry out some of the urgent and important tasks that are in front of them. When we enter the next election, I hope that we shall be returned with a convincing majority, so that a Labour Government can continue to tackle the problems of the real world in the 1980s—problems that face every man, woman and child in the country. I hope that the people will reject completely the unreal, fanciful and potentially extremely harmful policies that have been proposed by the Conservative Party.