Just for once, let us be wise before rather than after the event. The Minister and I have been in Parliament for exactly the same time, six and a half years, and there is a sense of dÃ(c)jà vu as I consider many of the Bills on which I served on the Committee.

For example, the first Bill Committee that I sat on was the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; we pointed out, time and again, the enormous costs that would go into setting up the associated agency. On the Enterprise Act 2002, we repeatedly talked about the risk of allowing too many 20-somethings to become bankrupt, but all that came to pass. On the Licensing Act 2003, I talked endlessly about the notion of 24-hour drinking and the risible idea that bringing in more flexible licensing laws would somehow lead to a Parisian drinking culture on the streets of London and of the country. Likewise, on the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, we endlessly talked about the spiralling costs, and, of course, they are precisely what have come to pass.

Our biggest concern in relation to Crossrail is not the idea of it, as the project is something that we very much support, but the notion of blight if the proper funding is not put into place. I fear that, notwithstanding the assurances made by the Minister and the Prime Minister over the last six or seven weeks, the funding package for Crossrail is a good deal less robust than we would like it to be. It is for that reason that I totally support new clause 2, and my hon. Friends have put forward robust reasoning for it. I fear, however, that if we do not get this right and we do not get the proper funding in place, there will in years to come be a sort of half-Crossrail that will not do anything like as much as it is planned to do at this stage; there will be a phase 1, with phase 2 or 3 deep in the future, which will never come to pass because of the enormous, spiralling costs.

We need to get this right, and the worst of all worlds, as I have said, is that countless numbers of constituents, not only in my constituency, but in dozens across London and the south-east, will have their lives blighted by being on the Crossrail route, with very little prospect of the project coming to fruition, unless we get the funding right. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will give serious consideration to ensuring that, for once, we are genuinely wise before rather than after the event.