We recognise that so many people were suffering so much as a consequence of the fuel crisis that many of them took to the streets and expressed huge frustration about a situation that was outside their control and about which they felt the Government could do much more. We all acknowledge the Government was not able to stop the war that caused the crisis in the first place but it could certainly have done more to ensure people could get a break, particularly when it came to home heating oil. In my part of the country and, I am sure, in the Minister of State's area, the vast majority of people use home heating as their source of fuel. Older people, people with disabilities and others found it difficult, having come through a long, hard winter when they were already hit with the cost-of-living crisis, that the cost of a fill of oil went through the roof and the Government did absolutely nothing about it. That is one of the big frustrations people had. They felt so let down by all of that. Families who had to bring children to school and those who run small businesses and so forth also found their costs spiralling and, again, the Government did the minimum to help them. That was their experience. It is why we proposed that whatever reduction should come, it should come at the pump so that everybody would benefit from it. It would benefit hauliers, those who own a school bus that brings children to school but also people who cannot get a school bus and have to bring their children to school themselves. There are many people who have no option but to do that. People who go to work felt the Government simply was not listening. That is why there was such frustration and people took to the streets at that time. Since then, prices have stabilised at a high level and have not come down enough for people who are struggling to survive. The squeezed middle are often talked about. People cannot manage to pay a mortgage because they are under so much pressure. They cannot manage to pay the car loan and everything that is hitting them at all angles. Then, they suddenly found the price of fuel, home heating oil and everything else going through the roof. The Government did little to help them and they felt they were left alone. That is what brought people to the streets. These people were not crazies. They were just ordinary people who felt they were being totally let down. While the Finance Bill is about trying to put in place mechanisms to deliver the measures the Government put in place in March and April, it is really an opportunity for us to tell the Government it needs to wake up to ordinary people's struggles. Ordinary people feel the Government has opportunities to do so much more but continually hides away and pretends that, somehow or other, everything is out of its control and it has to put away money in a big piggy bank for a rainy day. People feel it is raining on them right now. That is the frustration we have and the frustration felt by the vast majority of ordinary decent people who just want to get on with their lives. They want to have a chance to do a little bit better than their parents before them and to see a future for their children coming after them. That is the problem for so many people. It was said to me the other day that in the past, back in the 1970s and 1980s in this country when things were terrible, people could buy a house and have a future. Today, people are saying their children will not be able to do those things. These are the issues that are impacting people. We need to recognise that the Government has a role to play in assisting people through the ordinary things in their lives as well as the big things in the economy.

Sentiment score: -0.06