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Business of the House

I am grateful at least for the right hon. Lady’s last, rather entertaining, comment. I suppose that Opposition Front-Bench Members have to live in hope, but that is all they will be living in. On the right hon. Lady’s specific points, I see no reason at all why right hon. and hon. Members should not make contributions about dentistry in today’s debate. I am sure that one of the things that they will want to do is to note the fact that the Government have recruited the equivalent of 1,453 more dentists to the national health service, which has contributed to a net increase of 1,100 dentists; that overall there are 4,000 more dentists in primary care since 1997; that we are in the process of agreeing a new contract that will enable committed NHS dentists to earn an average of £80,000 a year; and that a third of dentists are already working under those new arrangements. There is significant progress, over and above the difficulties caused—in case the right hon. Lady has forgotten—by the reduction in the number of places for trainee dentists under the last Government. We inherited that problem and have sought to tackle it. On the nonsense about queues and forcing people to register by telephone, I would have thought that in the 21st century the right hon. Lady might welcome the fact that it is possible to register by telephone rather than having to stand outside in a queue, but clearly the Conservative party is still looking backwards. I recognise that for some of its members the telephone is a new-fangled invention, but it is nevertheless one that most people in society have got used to using. I welcome the efforts of the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) to modernise the Conservative party; perhaps soon it will use the telegraph rather than the pigeons that are clearly part of its internal communication system. On Herceptin, I am sorry that the right hon. Lady raised the issue in the way that she did. Obviously, everyone has sympathy for those diagnosed with cancer and it is important that we try to ensure that the drug is made available, especially given the promising results of recent trials, but it is equally important that we have a proper process to determine how new drugs are used, and I would have thought that all Members would agree about that. It remains the case that once the drug is licensed it can be generally used, but before it is licensed the matter is for local decision. That remains the position, and I would have thought that Members would support and welcome it. We have made it clear that the education Bill will be published before the end of the month. I have set out that position before and I am delighted to repeat it. On the economy, the right hon. Lady is on rather weak ground when she criticises the Government about unemployment. We realise that the Conservatives are experts on unemployment—they created and fostered so much of it during their period in office. The truth is that since 1997, 2,341,000 new jobs have been created, filled by people who are working hard to contribute to the success of the country’s economy—expressions that could never, ever have been used during the Conservative period in office. I would hope that, rising occasionally above party political rhetoric, the right hon. Lady might acknowledge that success and congratulate the Government on it. I have always made clear my personal support for compulsory voting. It seems a modest commitment to expect of citizens in society, but I recognise that there are many views in that debate. I am happy to contribute to them.