European Union (Amendment) Bill

I echo the Minister in regretting that we have not had the chance to consider the competencies and climate change amendments. It is clear that this debate has not been time wasted; there has been no filibustering and there have been important matters to be discussed and debated. That shows how woefully unsatisfactory is the Government's timetable for the consideration of these matters. The Minister said that he hoped that there might be some opportunity a little later to consider the matter, but he knows that there will be no such opportunity. That rather diminished in my eyes the trust that I placed in anything that he said thereafter. I come to what the Minister said about the substance of these matters. He would not even listen to the carefully worded thoughts of the right hon. Member for Leicester, West (Ms Hewitt) when she commended what my right hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory) had put forward in his new clause 5. We shall return to this point next week, but it seems to me that it would be open to the Government to accept it in the Bill rather than simply saying that the matter will be passed to the Leader of the House for consideration in respect of changing the House's procedures. That, if I may say so, smacks of mañana.