Clause 2
Education and Skills Bill
11:15 am
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
I did not realise that there were any high Tories left. Indeed, we have managed to find a coalition of views between a Liberal, a liberal Conservative and a high Tory. I hold out some hopes for the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings, because he sounded veritably Cameronian when he started to discuss the benefits of meditation and inactivity. I expect at some future date to see proposals along those lines on the front page of The Observer or The Guardian, as informed by his thinking.
The hon. Gentleman made a powerful case for a more voluntarist and permissive approach to the Bill. I wait with interest to see whether he has convinced the Minister, as his hon. Friends and I were not able to do so. I was not convinced by the Minister’s explanations of what he has described as a forensic rather than a nuclear or sledgehammer approach. How one can have a forensic process of compulsion or a forensic sledgehammer, I am not sure—or convinced that one can. However, having felt compelled to lend my support to the amendments on the basis of the robust case made for them, I look forward to seeing whether the hon. Gentleman has convinced the Minister.