Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval)

My right hon. and learned Friend is making a powerful argument. The vote on the 18 March motion was not about going to war—I was going to intervene on the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) on this point—although I acknowledge that both of us were not here at that point. There was a vote on resolution 1441, which related to the failure of the inspection programme, and a vote on resolution 678, which was tucked away in the motion and had actually been written 12 years before. If we are to introduce new arrangements, we must have a clear-cut indication that this House will decide whether we go to war, rather than the ambiguity of the motion debated on 18 March 2003.