Last weekend I had important meetings about our industrial heritage, one of our active industrial concerns and the Drakelow Tunnels. I was convinced by the reasons behind the local objections to the proposals for the tunnels. 
I opened the sensitively renovated Tudor Church House next door to St. Bartholomew's Church, Areley Kings. This dates from 1536 and will be an exciting venue for a variety of events. The upstairs hall is surprisingly spacious due to the Tudor overhang. It must be one of the earliest fully restored buildings in Wyre Forest and is a huge tribute to the Church House Charitable Trust, The Worcester Building Preservation Trust and their architect.

Then I joined in the celebration of Stourport's achievement of Fairtrade status. 
With the Chairman of the District Council, and the Mayor of Stourport, we welcomed this splendid achievement and heard that Stourport is only the second Fairtrade town in Worcestershire following the two year campaign by a small steering group formed by the Justice & Peace Group. Insisting on Fairtrade goods, wherever we can, is one easy way of supporting people in developing countries. In 2004 Fairtrade sales worldwide topped 140 million and these sales are increasing by 40% per annum.

St. Chad's Church hosted a Carers Day arranged by the Worcestershire Association of Carers. 
I learnt that there are at least six million entirely voluntary carers in the country saving the NHS £57 billion per year! There were demonstrations and displays from organisations helpful to carers and advice on health issues and benefits. The day would have helped many who attended but sadly there is still a shortage of respite care in the area to give hardworking, stressed and exhausted carers the breaks they need to continue their selfless work.

I returned to London for the Consideration of Lords Amendments to the Identity Cards Bill. 
These were the amendments that many people support which would remove compulsion. But rather than stating plainly that the Government insisted upon compulsion, Ministers got into a muddle trying to say that the word "must" meant the same as the word "voluntary". 
The inappropriate example of the place for free will that the Home Secretary chose was passports. He claimed that people exercised their free will in deciding whether or not they wished to have a passport and thus if they did not have a passport they would not have to have an ID card! 
Although there was a revolt by sixteen splendidly independent Labour backbench rebels, the House of Lords amendment was defeated by a majority of 33. It now returns to the House of Lords and this will start "ping-pong" between the two chambers.

In a debate about NHS reconfigurations I pointed out that the Department of Health is inexcusably distributing incorrect information about our hospital services which is potentially damaging to our continuing campaign.