Clause 38
Welfare Reform Bill
10:30 am
Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)
I, too, welcome your return to the Chair, Mr. Hood. In the spirit of my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare, I wish also to comment on the fact that we could use the words of Louis de Leon, a lecturer at Salamanca university who had tangled with the inquisition. He was imprisoned for five years and, on his return, he started his lecture, “As we were saying yesterday”, although he did say it in Latin.
On that basis, I am sure that I, too, might be allowed to make a short personal statement to the Committee although, during the interregnum, I have not been subject to a period of imprisonment or, indeed, cruel and unusual punishment. However, I have retired from the Opposition Front Bench and I assure avid Labour Members that I have not done so from a desire for a policy disagreement or even a particular sanguinary coup, but, as they say, it is to spend more—