On the benches

Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman and MP for North Southwark & Bermondsey, reviews the week in politics for BBC News Online.

"The highlight of the week, paradoxically, may not be something we are able to discover until next week. But this week we passed legislation to restore government to Northern Ireland.

"I guess it may all depend on what happens at the Ulster Unionist Council. But when history comes to be written, if this was the week that the decision was taken that government should go back to Northern Ireland, then that will have been a real highpoint.

"If you put aside relatively flippant things like Millwall, my local team, not getting into the final play-offs - they fell at the Wigan fence on Wednesday night - then abroad the lowpoint has been Sierra Leone.

"I have a lot of Sierra Leonean constituents and they really have lived through one of the most brutal of civil wars and the fact that there appears to be no quick solution to that is of huge concern both in Britain and internationally.

"The other very specific lowpoint came when I went with a councillor colleague of mine, at his request, to see a constituent - a pensioner lady who lived on her own - at the beginning of the week.

"We went because she wanted us to come and talk about how she and her adult divorced son could move to better accommodation because he was dying of cancer.

"We got there to find that he had already died. And it's those sorts of real failures of the system that remind us politicians really why we do this job, they keep us going and keep us fired up enough to make us angry."

"Probably the most effective political performance of the last seven days has been the Police Federation, who have managed to dominate the agenda.

"I went down and spoke to them on Tuesday, Jack Straw went on Wednesday and William Hague went on Thursday and probably they have influenced the agenda this week more than anything else accept Northern Ireland.

"So five stars for political influence. They may not get all they want, they may not get the Royal Commission they are asking for but they are certainly making sure we don't forget they are there."

"It is the first week the government has begun to slip in the opinion polls.

"They have had an amazing ability to continue at about the same level they were at since the last general election, but at last they seem to be losing several points in two or three opinion polls.

"Some to the Tories, some to us - both the opposition parties have gained.

"So I guess when Mr Blair begins to prepare for his mini-paternity leave he may be beginning to think that it is not inevitable that Labour will win at the next general election."

"When at people have a go at you it is often helpful as it means you have a chance publicly to have a say back.

"This week we've had Mr Hague having a go at us, saying the reason we have such a lawless society is because of the liberal establishment of the last 40 years.

"When he says things like that I'd just like to remind him that in the years since the War the Tories have been the establishment - I wish it had been the liberals, but it hasn't."

"My agenda in the chamber is usually defined by when there is specific Home Office business.

"But unusually it has been a week when there hasn't been a Home Office bill on the floor of the House or in Committee.

"But there was the statement Sierra Leone and the statement on police training, both very important matters.

"And then there was that bizarre exchange on Wednesday in Prime Ministers' Questions between Hague and Blair.

"When Hague asked six different questions on six different subjects to see if Blair could turn the pages on his briefing notes over quickly enough to give the appropriate answers.

"And then we saw Charles Kennedy really do rather well to get out of Tony Blair that there are really three positions on the euro, which given he was sat in between Peter Mandelson and Gordon Brown looked like a very accurate picture of government policy."

"I always get a lot of letters at this time of year from parents on the problems they have getting the schools they want to for their children. As the end of the academic year gets closer many people get more and more anxious that they can't their children into the schools that they want.

"Other issues are year round issues, I have a lot of letters from pensioners complaining about lack of pensions, people getting exercised about difficult issues like Section 28 or GM foods."

"Simply in the order in which they appear - spending a happy 48 hours locked in a hotel in Bristol with all my parliamentary colleagues, the redeeming feature of which is that we are meant to be planning our coming to power at the next election.

"When Steve Ross was the MP for the Isle of Wight he always said being the third party of British politics always gets very - then he used an expletive - frustrating after a little.

"Well I've been here 17 years now and I am keen to move at least to second place if not to first place before I finish. So we'll be planning our general election campaign.

"Then starting next week we'll be having a good political debate on jury trial, on which the government is wrong and then on that horizon there is a half term even for MPs, so I'll be looking forward to having some time off."