Table
Vehicles (Crime) Bill
10:30 am
Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)
The Minister will not be surprised to know that, following the proceedings of yesterday's Programming Sub-Committee, my hon. Friends and I intend to oppose its resolution for consideration of the Bill—more details of which will follow anon. Before that happens, however, I wish to echo at this early stage in our proceedings what the Minister said by way of welcome to you, Mr. O'Brien, and to Mr. Sayeed, who will also Chair our proceedings.
Despite our disagreements yesterday afternoon, which on the whole were good natured although the Minister became tetchy towards the end, your chairmanship, Mr. O'Brien, was a model of clarity, firmness and fairness. I put on record today—because, of course, there were no minutes of yesterday's proceedings, still less a verbatim account—the appreciation that my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Norfolk and I share for your chairmanship. You have had 17 years experience in the House and, therefore, know a thing or two about sitting on Committees, chairing Committees and participating in parliamentary proceedings. As I gently reminded you yesterday—and you took no umbrage at the reminder—you have, by virtue of your 17 years' service, considerable experience of opposition, so you recognise both its frustrations and its occasional opportunities. We look forward to your chairmanship, which will be firm but fair.
In the spirit of the earlier part of yesterday's proceedings, it is a genuine pleasure to serve on a Committee with the Members whom I see behind, around and opposite me, many of whom contributed constructively and intelligently on Second Reading. Although we had our differences, several potent speeches were made, and a great deal of interest was shown in this important but not entirely uncontroversial Bill. It is good to know that the arguments will be amplified and developed further in the course of the Committee's consideration. I am especially pleased that the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Mr. Pope) is a member of the Committee, as he competes with the Minister as the most courteous and accommodating Government Member.
It is not only a pleasure but a privilege to serve opposite the hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke), the Minister of State. No ordinary Minister of State, he; we should be aware that we are in the presence of potential and possibly actual greatness. That is relevant as we begin our proceedings. I refer to what is probably the most recent but, I am sure, not the last commentary on the Minister in yesterday's edition of The Guardian—where else, one might inquire. He was the subject of the Monday interview, entitled Man with a Mission'', written by Mr. John Kampfner, that celebrated journalist and biographer of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In the byline to the article, he says:
You've probably never heard of—
and then he names the Minister, which I will of course not do, Mr. O'Brien—
But one thing singles him out from countless innocuous Labour MPs.