§ In this Budget, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have reaffirmed the prudent policies that have brought us three successive years of steady growth with low inflation and the prospect of a fourth ahead of us. I have described how we can take in our stride the dramatic collapse in the oil price, and benefit from its consequences.
In collaboration with my right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Employment, I have announced a further substantial range of measures to help the unemployed. I have proposed a radical and far-reaching new scheme for tax-free investment in equities. so that we may truly become a share-owning democracy, and I have abolished a fourth tax. I have announced the most substantial package of assistance to charitable giving ever, and cut the basic rate of income tax.
Building as it does on the achievements of the recent past, this Budget is a safeguard for the present and a springboard for the future. I commend it to the House.