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Personal Care at Home Bill

I am glad to find that my hon. Friend has been paying such close attention to areas outside his own brief that he has articulated party policy very adequately. He made a serious point, on which the Minister sought to challenge him, about the question of consensus. I think there is a mood in the House that we need to try to establish, where we can, a consensus on the way forward on an issue that we can all see is coming down the track not just for our political generation but for those who succeed us. Does my agree hon. Friend that it would be quite interesting to get any invitation from Ministers to join them in a round-table discussion that might identify areas of consensus, and that we would be happy to accept it? Given the Minister's challenge to him, would not a good start be for the Minister to accept that if the Government amended the Bill to include our home protection scheme, that would protect not only the people whom he seeks to protect—a small number, according to the hon. Member for South Thanet (Dr. Ladyman)—but those whom we seek to protect, who are fearful because they might have to sell their homes to pay for long-term residential care?