European Union (Amendment) Bill

The only reason Handelsgesellschaft, together with Costa and a series of other cases that I could quote to the hon. Gentleman, who obviously does not have all his cases in front of him, has any applicability whatever to this House and to the people of the country, including my voters, is because of sections 2 and 3 of the European Communities Act 1972. I address that issue in my new clause 6. The Government have said that they do not want the charter to apply to this country. Although they go in for a lot of weasel words about opt-outs and the rest of it, that is their bottom line, and they said as much during the Convention. The reality is that there is only one way to extract oneself from the labyrinth, or leviathan, of the European Court of Justice, from which there is no appeal, which is not elected, and which lays down principles through the acquis communautaire, with which we have to comply because of sections 2 and 3: to use the formula,"““Notwithstanding . . . the European Communities Act 1972””." I would like to press on to other matters, and then I should like to come back to the issue of how the unity found among Conservative Members could best be achieved by others.