St Mary's Church was packed on Sunday for the service of celebration and dedication of the new bells.

A video link showed the blessing of the bells by the Bishop to the huge congregation and then the bells themselves as the first triumphant peals rang out over Kidderminster. How wonderful for the people of Kidderminster! The bells will last for one thousand years.

At a meeting with officers of the Environment Agency, I shared their satisfaction with the flood defences on Severnside North and requested completion of the Severnside South defences as soon as possible and then serious consideration for defences at Beale's Corner.

Norwich Union has produced a detailed flood map of parts of England. This does not yet cover Bewdley and Stourport but it should lead to fairer insurance premiums for some people less at risk of flooding. I am writing to ask if premiums for properties protected by defences that have now been shown to be effective can be reduced.

Two Bills going through Parliament this week have demonstrated vividly, in my opinion, weaknesses of the current adversarial political system.

Members of all parties wanted the Asylum and Immigration Bill amended or thrown out. As it stands, it does not provide an independent appeals process. In winding up, the Conservative Front Bench spokesman said "the rule of law is under attack by an illiberal Government" and "All the people within this country's jurisdiction should be treated equally under the law....." Speaker after speaker from the Government's own benches condemned the proposals.

A respected, senior Labour MP said: "We know that the measure will never be accepted by the other place (the House of Lords), and the Government have presumably factored that into their thinking."

He continued: "The Government should not ask the House to agree something that raises fundamental points of constitutional importance, on the assumption that what will eventually be agreed will be something other than the original proposal."

Despite these views, the Bill passed its Third Reading with a majority of 239. Only two Tory backbenchers voted against it, the rest abstained despite their spokesman's comments.

There were about 15 Labour rebels and more abstainers while most of the Liberal Democrats and smaller parties including myself voted against it.

The second Bill was the pensions Bill which proposes a pensions regulator with more teeth than the current regulatory authority and a Pension Protection Fund aimed at alleviating in the future the personal disasters for pensioners of firms that go into liquidation with large debts.

At least it is a step in the right direction. However, incomprehensibly, the Tory Opposition voted against the Bill's Second Reading while the Liberal Democrats sided with the Government.