Of course I withdraw it, Mr. Speaker, but it was said metaphorically. I should have thought that Opposition Members, sensitive though they are—and we all know their degree of sensitivity which they take from their leader—would have had a little more sense than to take issue with that. But, of course, if it upsets them, I withdraw it.

What I was seeking, and what I failed to get from the Opposition Front Bench, was an assurance that none of my constituents who are now in employment because of Government measures will be thrown out of work on the return of a Conservative Government. The right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Whitelaw), given the opportunity, refused to give that assurance. So my constituents now know that on the return of a Conservative Government every one of the companies in my constituency which for their lifeblood need Government loans, assistance and subsidies will lose them and, therefore, there will be further unemployment.

We have the suggestion from the Opposition that we should not have any further intervention in industry. Yet the level of unemployment on Merseyside is a graphic and dramatic demonstration of the failure of private industry. Every redundancy that we have had—we have had many, and there are many more in the pipeline—whether it be at Dunlop, Speke, BIC Connelly's in my own constituency, Akzo Chemic, Courtaulds or Thorn, has been caused by a private enterprise company not being prepared to fulfil its responsibilities to the community, to put further investment into the region or to sustain and maintain jobs.

We on Merseyside know that we cannot afford the return of any Government committed to a policy of non-intervention and to a policy of private enterprise. Employment on Merseyside depends upon an active, interventionist Government prepared to take seriously their duties to industry and to maintain and sustain employment.

Much more important than that is our attitude to the Health Service and social services generally. What a calamity it would be to have the return of a spiteful, divisive, vindictive party that is dedicated to the principle of making economic charges in the NHS. It will increase prescription charges to an economic level. It will make a charge for a visit to the doctor or a stay in a hospital. It will increase optical charges. It will increase council rents to an economic level. Those are all measures to which the Conservative Party has committed itself, and it has never denied that fact. This would have calamitous consequences for the majority of my constituents, who are low paid and do not have the wherewithal to pay for private medicine or for the payments for which the Conservative Party is calling.

Labour Members do not have to go on the defensive. Our record is clear and clean, and is a good one. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Conservative Members may jeer, but the country outside will cheer. Conservative Members will be the ones to hear those cheers loudest in the next few weeks and months.

Let there be no mistake that, although my Government have made many mistakes, had many shortcomings and had many failures—I have not been the least quiet in being critical of them—they have a proud and enviable record on employment, industry and the social and welfare services. Whatever else, the country cannot afford the kind of spite, divisiveness and vindictiveness which the Conservative Party peddles as part and parcel of its ordinary everyday philosophy.

The case has been made out clearly and overwhelmingly, not least by Labour Back Benchers. I have every confidence that, if the vote tonight does not demonstrate the case that has been made, the vote in the country will do so.