Whitsun Adjournment

No, I shall not take any more from the hon. Gentleman, because he knows that he has got it wrong. My fondness is not so extensive as to allow him to intervene again, because I want to talk briefly about my constituency. I shall raise three brief issues. For my constituents, the single most important issue affecting them is the recession, and I think that they want us to look at how we can help them in their individual situations and ensure that people do not have their homes repossessed. I was struck a few weeks ago by somebody who came to my surgery and said that he had just passed the 13-week mark after being made unemployed and was therefore able to get support for his mortgage, meaning that he would not lose his home. We sometimes forget that the things that we change in Parliament dramatically and personally affect people's life opportunities. The same goes for employment opportunities in my area. Historically, my constituency has had a high level of incapacity benefit claimants, so it is important that jobs are available to people, and that is why I am very supportive of one of the major projects that the Ministry of Defence still wants to advance—namely, the defence training academy at St. Athan, which I know would make a dramatic difference to my patch. Finally—[Interruption.] I can see out of my left eye, my Whip, whose eyebrow is rising with expectation at "Finally". I should like to extend my thanks and those of my right hon. and learned Friend the Leader of the House to all the staff of the House and, in particular at the moment, because it has felt like we have been under siege over the past few days, to the police, who have been policing in Parliament square. It is very difficult to strike that complex balance between ensuring that Parliament can do its business and allowing people to demonstrate and exercise their democratic freedoms. We also thank the Clerks of the House, whether wigged or not, the Doorkeepers and all those who serve us with food and drink. I extend my good wishes for Whitsun to all Members. Whitsun was originally always conceived of as Pentecost—as a moment for inspiration. For most people, it then became just a holiday. I should like to end by reciting "Whitsun", a poem by Sylvia Plath:""This is not what I meant:""Stucco arches, the banked rocks sunning in rows,""Bald eyes or petrified eggs,""Grownups coffined in stockings and jackets,""Lard-pale, sipping the thin""Air like a medicine…""A policeman points out a vacant cliff""Green as a pool table, where cabbage butterflies""Peel off to sea as gulls do,""And we picnic in the death-stench of a hawthorn.""The waves pulse like hearts.""Beached under the spumy blooms, we lie""Sea-sick and fever-dry.""