Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think that my hon. Friend made his own point. As I said earlier, the obsessional nature of so much of Conservative Members’ interest in the European Union has become increasingly plain, and it helped to propel them from office and keep them out of office for years on end, but the kind of debate of which we have heard so much from them this afternoon has an even worse effect. It compounds a problem about which Members in all parts of the House are increasingly concerned: public disengagement from Parliament itself. I am perfectly happy to see the Conservatives showing once again their true colours on Europe, and we will have many more opportunities to debate that following the programme motion. What worries me is that the kind of debate and the kind of points of order that we have heard this afternoon lead the public—my constituents and, I think, everyone else’s—not just to switch off their television sets should they happen to stumble on the parliamentary channel, but to switch off completely from voting.