Alex White (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, to the House. In doing so, I recognise it is a pity the Minister for Finance has other commitments, which we all understand. I presume he had a commitment at 11.30 a.m., which may be the real reason we started this debate at 10.30 a.m. rather than 11.30 a.m. Perhaps if we had been told this earlier in the week by the Leader, everybody would have understood and accepted that commitment rather than having that ridiculous skirmish the other day in regard to the Order of Business this morning.