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Parliamentary Representation

I apologise to you, Mr Speaker, to the Minister and to the House if I am not able to be here at the conclusion of the debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg), not only on securing the debate but on the work she did under your patronage, Mr Speaker, leading the Speaker's Conference. Some of us in the House today spent well over a year of our lives—not full-time, but it seemed a lot—on the Speaker's Conference and I hope that the recommendations can be followed through and that it will be possible to make progress. In order to avoid repetition, I say at the beginning that the issues surrounding the next general election, not only the lower number of Members of Parliament, but the dramatic boundary changes, present a challenge for all political parties. We need to appeal to them to take the matter very seriously if we are not to take a step backwards on gender, on sexuality, on ethnicity and on disability. I am genuinely deeply worried. I hope that the Access to Public Life Fund and the initiative of my right hon. Friend the Member for Salford and Eccles (Hazel Blears) on internships will assist. On a lighter note, I think that we have made progress in the 25 years since I came to the House. I was asked when I first came in with my dog whether there would be a problem with animal noises, and I gave an assurance that the dog would not be disturbed at all by the kind of thing that he was likely to hear in Prime Minister's questions at that time. I did, however, face the enormous problem of persuading people that additional resources would make it possible to work on equal terms. It was a fiasco. We had a working party between the two Houses under the chairmanship of Lord Jenkins, as he became. The recommendations had to be voted on on the Floor of the House. We have come a long way since that terrible embarrassment. One Member, who is still in the House, said to me, ““You're very lucky to get these extra resources.”” I said, ““I'll swap you any time.””