He mentions Germany and France. It is easy to refer to the Federal Republic of Germany as a basket case. This is a country which in the past ten years has managed to do something which is almost unprecedented in recent history in that it has incorporated a bankrupt communist state, with a negligible infrastructure, into a functioning Western style social market economy. It achieved this with relatively small tax increases. The Federal Republic of Germany has been a major success. Although it is experiencing some difficulties today it manages to maintain the essence of social welfare and health systems which are infinitely superior to ours. Like France it has a public transport system which is also far superior to ours, and while everybody would acknowledge that it has problems, particularly in the labour market, I am sure our Social Democrat and Green colleagues can overcome these without lectures from the right to help them along the way.