I was going to say, talk about unfortunate timing as far as that goes.
As I read in your bio, I understand you are a distant relative of George Bernard Shaw. Of course, in my area we have the Shaw Festival, so this is something that we appreciate greatly.
You established the Centre for Social Justice in 2005. One of the things that I find interesting about your perspective as a member of Parliament...and if I could just read the mission for the Centre for Social Justice:
...develops and promotes effective new approaches to tackle Britain’s poverty and most acute social problems. We are not a conventional Westminster think-tank. Rather we exist to champion and learn from the work of effective grassroots poverty-fighting groups throughout Britain.
That's one of the things we're hoping to do in this committee, to look at what the grassroots are doing and find effective in order to make recommendations. It goes on to say:
Policy development work is rooted in the experience and wisdom of the hundreds of small charities, social entrepreneurs...that are having great success in tackling Britain’s deepest problems where the best efforts of the state may have failed. Our job is to learn from these groups, enabling them to share their hard won expertise with senior politicians in Westminster and local government. We are constantly driven by the need to bring politicians face-to-face with the realities of breakdown in Britain.
If my colleague Tony Martin was here, he would agree with what you guys are doing.
The other thing that I also wanted to point out, and you may in your opening remarks, is that it's not a question of left or right, north or south; you work with all groups. One of the groups you've worked with is the Smith Institute. John Smith was the leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994. I just wanted to point that out to my colleagues.
I'm going to turn it over to you now, Mr. Smith. We look forward to hearing your opening remarks. Then we're going to take time for maybe one or two rounds of questioning. We have from 10 until 11 o'clock, when I know you have to leave and we have other witnesses coming in.
Welcome, Mr. Smith. The floor is now yours.