EU: UK Membership

My Lords, I rise as the single Euro-sceptic pearl in this oyster of Euro-philiac debate. So far 22 of your Lordships have extolled the benefits of our EU membership. After me, there will be three more from the Front Benches. So I hope that it is helpful if I recommend to students of our ill fated involvement in the project of European integration that they also read a more realistic debate in the House on Friday 8 June, to which the noble Lord, Lord Bowness, was good enough to refer. In that debate, most speakers asked the Government for an official cost-benefit analysis of our EU membership. It was not a Bill about withdrawing from the EU. It is regrettable that neither the Government, nor the large Euro-phile majority in your Lordships' House, dare to support such an initiative. It is also obvious that the reason they do not want it is that they are scared stiff of the results. We Euro-sceptics are prepared for our view, that the United Kingdom would be immensely better off outside the European Union, to be put to the test in an unbiased, official inquiry. The Euro-philes are not. One contributory reason for the wholly Euro-phile tone of today’s debate may be that no fewer than 10 of the previous 22 speakers have been Members of the European Parliament or senior employees of the European Union. No doubt they are proud of their careers in these capacities and, no doubt, they enjoyed their time in the plush—