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Personal Care at Home Bill

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, partly because what he suggests is relatively flattering. Luckily, however, I am enough of a realist to recognise that, nice as it may feel, it is not the same as being in government when the Opposition's probing or other amendments are probed in turn by Government Members. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that there have, of course, been extensive internal discussions, as he would expect, within my party—as I dare say there have been within his party—on how to grapple with this particular issue. Those in charge of funding must be included. Why? Because, as I said before, there is probably no more predictable issue for the political generation coming down the track than this one. We know it is there; we all know it is pretty insuperable, but we have got to find a solution. None are more challenged than this generation of politicians in this House—either this side of the general election or after it when some may be re-elected—in facing up to this particular challenge. The right hon. Gentleman is rightly probing me on why I tabled certain amendments, but I am very conscious that we have had a series of discussions and open inquiries, not least the one led by my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood shortly after my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) became the leader of the Conservative party. It looked into these very issues, so my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood has been able to advise us accordingly. That has led, in turn, to many discussions among and across many shadow departmental briefs. I hope that that gives the right hon. Gentleman the reassurance that he sought—that this matter is taken extremely seriously, as the issue betokens. If our generation ducks this one, we will be in grave danger. My plea to the Minister is, as I have said repeatedly from the Front Bench, that there could be a way to gain a better and more consensual approach, given that we are all in this together. At the moment, this has fallen somewhat flat, as the Minister has not formally invited me or Liberal Democrat Front-Bench Members to have a consensual chat about these matters. I would be very happy to participate in that, even if it were completely off the record, not least because there is a precedent—this relates partly to the amendment—for something along these lines in respect of pensions. There has been a greater degree of consensus on how to find a way forward on that subject, which was also a challenge for us and will be for those coming down the track. It is important to place that on the record in the light of the quite proper rejoinder of the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr. Clarke), who wanted to probe my amendment; whether or not it is a probing amendment has yet to be decided. It is important to bear in mind the fact that the Bill amends the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Act 2003, whose purpose was to deal with what could have been described in legal terms as the mischief of bed blocking. Section 15 removed the limit at which care could be provided free of charge. I assume, although it may not be the case, that even if someone joined the social insurance risk pool mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Poole—the Government's Green Paper partnership option, for instance, is still very much under consideration—that would not count as a charge, in which case the Bill could make such a model possible. Given that Tony Blair promised reform 12 years ago, would it not be best for us to produce a consensus to make full reform of social care possible through the Bill? The amendment was intended to give us a genuine opportunity to consider that question.