European Union (Amendment) Bill

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Michael Connarty). I agree with a great deal of what he said, but I put a slightly different interpretation on how the situation came about. It always struck me that there was never really any problem with ““shall””. It was always meant in a descriptive or performative way. The problem has come about because of the attempt at renegotiation. One could argue that the position is worse than it was when we started to try to renegotiate, because the resistance to the word ““may”” has apparently caused a problem with the interpretation of various articles that I did not think existed. Without much doubt, ““contribute”” in article 8C is meant to be either a description of how things will work or, even less worryingly for the House, performative. In other words, when the things in paragraphs (a) to (e) happen, it constitutes the national Parliaments contributing"““actively to the good functioning of the Union””." There is therefore no problem even with an implied obligation, because it would be fulfilled by virtue of those things happening. The problem that amendment No. 13 purports to address is, sadly, largely of our own making. It is a red herring—and we have well and truly smoked this herring into its present state. The best solution would be to have a debate now, and for the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) to withdraw his amendment. I am sure that the Government will offer reasonable clarification.