New clause 8 - Compensation
Hunting (Re-committed) Bill
5:15 pm
Mr Alun Michael (Minister of State (Rural Affairs), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Cardiff South and Penarth, Labour/Co-operative)
I am pleased that the attitude of the services has improved tremendously in recent years. After speaking to a conference of officials about the new deal, I commented that there was a sense of optimism around, to which a person replied, ''Well, we have been asked to do what we joined the service to do, which was to get people into work.'' During the long periods when some of us worked on economic development when the Conservatives were in power, we saw little care for many of the people whom we now represent. Indeed, it was the experience of working with unemployed young people and the way that the Conservative Government had taken hope away from them that led me to stand for Parliament. I make those points to counter the disgraceful slurs that have been made on the public services.
Mr. Gray rose—