Parliament (Participation of Members of the House of Commons) Bill [HL]

I am sure there is a love-in going on, my Lords. However, the noble Lord has a sort of bifurcated personality. He spoke a lot about my former constituents; I do not believe that they would like Labour and Welsh MPs telling them how to run their affairs. It is as simple and basic as that. I welcome the support of my noble friend Lord Strathclyde, because this is now, as I understand it, Conservative policy. That is indeed welcome. The Labour Party and the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor have to come up with an answer. They say that there is no problem—we want to walk by on the other side. You cannot do that; the constitutional changes made by the Government have been fairly haphazard and not thought out. The position of devolution is neither static nor final, and he should recognise that. He has considerable intellectual distinction, and he should show it by addressing his mind in a positive way instead of abusing me. I am used to abuse—indeed, I thrive on it—but he owes the House something more than what he has given us today, a tirade about a rather tired argument. This is a problem and the noble and learned Lord ought to address it as such. He has never stood for elective office. MPs are worried about this because Members go to the other House because they represent part of their country—a particular, isolated place called a constituency. They have territorial loyalties. They are not called by their names as we are in this House; they exist only because they are tied to the land that sent them there. When you have those English MPs being told that their policies will be determined by people who come from another constituency—another country that has its own Parliament or Assembly—they will not take it. I suggest to the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor that when he addresses his mind to this problem, he addresses it in a way that is akin with democracy and not assertion. I hope that this Bill will find some progress somewhere. One day it will happen, of that I am quite sure in prediction. It may come, as the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, said, within a wider agreement of moving towards an English Parliament and English executive. But this is an injustice that has to be put right. It is simply not fair that Scottish and Welsh MPs can determine the policy on English domestic issues. There must be English votes for English laws. On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.