Last week, the end of the parliamentary session, was an eye-opener. We saw Party Politics in action, in my opinion, to the detriment of Government decision making.

The Government had to get through remaining Bills which had been amended by the House of Lords. 
The contentious Bills were -

• the Criminal Justice Bill which threatened trial by jury in some circumstances, and the 
• Health and Social Care Bill which proposed Foundation Hospitals for the NHS.

These Bills generated strong opposition either from the legal profession or from NHS supporters and in the House from Labour rebels and all opposition parties. Amendments to both Bills went back and forth from Lords to Commons right up until the last day. On the Foundation Hospital Bill the Secretary of State for Health first played the loyalty card insisting that his backbenchers could never ever vote with Tory Opposition. This did not work as the rebels voted according to their view of the merits of the issue and hence the Government scraped through with a majority of only seventeen. Their potential majority is over 160!

When the House of Lords would not accept this defeat, the Foundation Trust Bill came back to the House of Commons and the Leader of the House changed tactics dramatically. The vote then became nothing to do with Foundation Hospitals but about the supremacy of the will of the Commons over the Lords. Two of the Labour rebels openly admitted that they could not vote against supremacy of the Commons and thus, with others, withdrew their opposition to the Foundation Hospital Bill.
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At the same time, the Criminal Justice Bill was ping-ponging between the Houses similarly and it appeared to me that a bargain was struck that if opposition to the Foundation Hospital Bill withered, the Government would accept amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill to satisfy their rebels on that issue which, unlike Foundation Hospitals, was not a central plank of Government policy.

Yet again it took children to restore my normal optimistic frame of mind. 
I visited Barnabees Nursery’s fifth birthday party to present the staff with the excellent Birmingham Early Years Partnership Quality Framework Gold Award. The natural happiness of the children with their faces painted, some in bumble bee costumes, was the best tribute to staff and parents and restorative to me.

Other joyful events were the Carol Concerts in the Town Hall given by First School children augmented by the Worcester Salvation Army Band. I went to the first concert and was delighted by the enthusiasm and excitement of the singing and the clarity and relevance of the readings. Such occasions are the best tonics for us all. The future will be in our young peoples’ hands. 
Thank goodness they are optimistic about it. Hopefully we can all work towards leaving a worthwhile legacy !