However, we are suffering from a Crisis of Authority, and it is on this theme that I want to close the debate from this side of the House.

There is a Crisis of Authority and because the police are the epitome of the expression of authority it is easy for relationships between them and certain groups to become abrasive.

Recently, the French Prime Minister, Mr Raffarin, said that there is a Crisis of Authority in Europe.

It is on the score of delivery that it seems to me that Governments - all Governments - are vulnerable, and increasingly vulnerable, in a society beset by a Crisis of Authority, where the imperative of consultation means that all decisions are contested and where the traditional levers of influence flop limp in Ministers' hands.

The issue of immigration can be almost directly linked to a feeling of a Crisis of Authority and to the estrangement of ordinary people - voters who are not that interested in the minutiae of politics - and the lack of faith and trust that they have in the political system.