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A Conservative MP told me a story about speaking at a party meeting less than 50 miles from London. The Chairman showed him minute books from the 1930s when the committee discussed “the Member’s annual visit”. The stationmaster was "to be reminded to wear his top hat and position the red carpet correctly".

Every summer the journalists who cover events in Parliament talk about “MPs heading off for their summer break” as if this is some sort of luxury allowed only to elected representatives. Of course, the reality is that the journalists generally do go on holiday while MPs head back from Westminster to the other half of the job – namely the constituency.

“Justice delayed is justice denied”. This simple truth applies to everyone in the Justice System.

On Tuesday last week I heard the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, tell the Home Affairs Select Committee that the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998 “has made a real contribution to reducing crime”. He didn’t claim that the current situation is perfect and it isn’t, but the point of that Act when I introduced it was to give the police the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.

This week’s ‘big idea’ is to elect a Police Commissioner for each police force in England and Wales. Actually the language is confusing because we will be electing someone – a politician – whose job is to hold the police to account. At present there are only two police commissioners, namely the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force and the Commissioner of the City of London Police, both of whom are chief police officers.

It has always puzzled me when someone who says he loves his own town thinks he can prove it by denigrating other towns and cities. Essentially that seems to demonstrate a lack of confidence and not much pride. This shows itself in all sorts of ways - pride in a football team can end up with ‘hatred’ for the supporters of another one, and it marks out the difference between national pride and nationalism, which is narrow and inward looking. Someone once said (George Bernard Shaw I think), that “the nationalist is the man who loves his own country, and hates everybody else’s”.

Given that young people get such a bad press it was particularly inspiring to attend the Citizen Youth event at the O2 Arena in Greenwich. It used to be the Millennium Dome and remains an iconic venue despite its history.

It was interesting to see Ken Clarke as Justice Secretary saying that we lock up too many people and vowing to cut the number of people in prison.

This week started with an interviewer on BBC Radio Wales asking me whether the cap on skilled workers coming to the UK will work. Actually the numbers coming in to the country are already falling year on year as a result of policies that are already in place. The deportation of those who are here illegally has also accelerated considerably in recent years.

It is impossible to ignore the Budget this week. It is the biggest item of the week in Parliament and is likely to affect us for years if not decades ahead. We are bound to ask whether the UK has learned the lessons of past recessions and whether the decisions taken this week are prudent or rash.