Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

I was just going to make a point that effectively responds to my hon. Friend’s intervention. What Parliament needs to consider on this occasion is both the treaty itself and the Bill to give effect to it. It is the treaty that contains the real matters of substance that this House and certainly my constituents are most concerned about, whereas the Bill—an extremely short Bill, albeit one with some important procedural content—simply gives effect to it. It is therefore very wise and imaginative of the Government to come forward with a procedure that allows Parliament fully to debate the substance of the treaty itself—which is not of course amendable by this Parliament—by organising a series of themed debates, while also allowing time, as must properly be required, for debates on amendments to the Bill.