Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

Will my right hon. Friend respond more fully to the intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Mr. Shepherd), who recommended that this matter be dealt with in the long-established conventional way of a Committee of the whole House? If the Government are not prepared to accept that proposal, why should not the Opposition make it more difficult for them by withdrawing co-operation? Perhaps that would bring the Government to their senses.