Canterbury City Council Bill

If my hon. Friend is volunteering to help the process along, he or anyone else who did well in the private Member's Bill ballot would find themselves with very many friends soon after the ballot results were published. He is right to describe the process in that way, and I am sure that it would expedite matters if that happened. Of course, we cannot tell this afternoon whether that will happen, but I completely agree that the first step must be for any Government to develop a considered position and work through the detailed and important issues of how to distinguish between rogues, street traders and pedlars, and how one governs and enforces the laws that might be introduced in each case. I hope that I have clarified the Conservative party's position on this and that we are not urging our colleagues to vote either way on these specific Bills, but to make their own personal decisions.