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Transport (North-West)

That is undoubtedly true in other areas. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that in other parts of the country, informal, county-wide schemes are already operating, as in Lincolnshire and Surrey, as the only way to make the scheme in any way viable countrywide. The Minister will have to address how the Government intend, in the short period left to them, to rectify the funding of the scheme, because not only is it nationally underfunded, but the differentials between councils are causing major problems. I listened with great care to the case made for extending the scheme to rail and to young people and will be interested to hear whether the Minister will commit to funding that extra cost today. My hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) talked about the cost of rail, and he will be aware that those high roll-on fares are partly a direct result of the franchise system put in place by the Government. He also mentioned Ribble Valley Rail and Beeching, so it will be interesting to hear whether the Minister would like to do what the four previous Secretaries of State to whom I have written have failed to do, which is to join us in a moratorium on building on old railway lines. Being one of Parliament's most experienced air travellers, my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley spoke eloquently about the need to keep Manchester airport going. I was intrigued by the comments on high-speed rail, on which there is now consensus across the political spectrum. I am not quite sure that I recognise the Liberal Democrats as being the first to make that commitment or where that claim came from, but it is absolutely clear that high-speed rail has a part to play and I wish to touch on that in more detail. I was intrigued by the contribution made by the hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh). I think that he said that he regarded the funding for Crossrail as a folly, and I wonder whether that is his party's policy. I look forward to some official confirmation on that. We had an amusing tract on socialist economics from the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) and on the need for greater subsidy. I wonder whether the Minister will want to talk about greater subsidy today in the light of what is likely to happen tomorrow, when the Government will admit that we are in the longest recession since the second world war and that the budget deficit will rise to around 12 per cent. of gross domestic product. All the contributions have called for extra funding from the Government, so I wonder whether the Minister will talk about that. I looked at the numbers for funding for the north-west, compared with other regions—one of the interesting points that is often made is the comparison between the north-west and London. However, the Government will know that, according to the Department for Transport's current plans for 2010-11, the north-west will receive rather more per head than London. Do the Government intend to continue with those plans or do they intend to give rather less to the north-west?