I could only imagine the joy that the families and friends of those kidnapped by Hamas were feeling at their safe return from their underground hell in Gaza. The terrorists were playing a cruel game though, extracting many more of their supporters from Israeli jails. Let's hope that more hostages are released in the coming days if the ceasefire can hold. Then, the Israelis have said they would continue to root out Hamas terrorists until all of them have been accounted for. In the Commons, it was the last day of the Autumn Statement, which I commented on in last week's W2W, which is on my website. I requested a slip to 1800 to attend the funeral of a very old family friend. I knew her as Charlie. She was the mum of one of my closest friends, Peter, who tragically died of cancer a few years ago. The Service, in a small, village church near Andover, was packed with mourners. The eulogy was given quite brilliantly by her second son, Tom. Charlie was a force of energy you could not miss, or ignore. She had many friends and was wonderful to my mum before she died in 2019. It was a very poignant but uplifting funeral and I headed back to London with many, many memories of family get-togethers and all the laughs we had. Rest in peace, Charlie. As it happened, there were no votes at 2200. Why would there be? The Statement was one that Labour and the Lib Dems were clearly happy with! In other news, health officials were investigating the first confirmed case of a new strain of swine flu in the UK. A new pay offer was made to NHS consultants which could end long-running strike action in England. A court heard how two teenagers accused of murdering Brianna Ghey showed a "preoccupation" with "violence, torture and death". And the arrogant Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said "lives could have been saved" if he had been allowed to attend early coronavirus Cobra meetings, claiming Downing Street kept him "in the dark". What utter rubbish. What's more, he and Labour would have locked us all up far sooner and released us far later. If ever there was a political opportunist, Khan is it.