Up to the Commons. A mixed day with a number of debates and votes. I managed to get a word with local government minister Alok Sharma about the imminent arrival - we hope - of a commercial helicopter company on to the SAR base on Portland. There are a few sticking points and I had a brief and useful conversation with my colleague to satisfy myself that all was being done. It is. Then Justine Greening entered the Chamber to announce the latest on schools' funding. Her letter about this is on the website, so I will not expand on this any further. I think we all feel the final formula is far better and fairer than the old one and having campaigned for fairer funding since 2006 I am glad the Government has listened. A debate on the intimidation of election candidates came to nothing as several other debates knocked it out. However, there are genuine concerns, especially among the female candidates, that they were targeted by the extreme Left in a most unpleasant way. Is today's politics sinking to this? I do hope not, for all our sakes'.