Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 35:"Page 5, line 3, leave out paragraph (a)." The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 35, for the convenience of the Committee, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 36 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, and the noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose. We have essentially covered this ground in the earlier debate. The only point that I would like to raise on my amendment is that I would be grateful if my noble friend would spell out in, I hope, words of one syllable what regulations are intended and how they are intended to be made. In the case of Wales, are these regulations to be made by the National Assembly or are they to be made by somebody else? On the amendment of the noble Baroness, I am afraid that I have to take issue with the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, who spoke recently. I am not entirely convinced, from my experience, that commoners are the right people to look out for the broader interests of the common or to know how it should be managed. In my experience, commoners—I am one of them—wish to graze their sheep on the common and do not wish outside interference in the name of sustainability or anything like that. It is a very simple economic move. Simply to divide rights between the commons associations and to exclude any other possibility of how the commons might be run is not necessarily the right conclusion. We have had a lengthy debate on this subject and I shall merely ask my noble friend to clarify one of the points that I made. I beg to move.