European Union (Amendment) Bill

Emphatically so. I campaigned hard against it. I forget how many amendments I tabled, but certainly more than 100. With regard to the Bill, the Government have been conducting an exercise in appeasement with the European Union. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory), who was on the Convention, has pointed out over and over again—and he has the documents in the Chamber—the Government disagreed in the Convention but then appeased the rest of the European Union by going along with things that they did not agree with. He has made that case, and thereby performed a great service to the House of Commons and to the country. It is essential that we have an association of nation states in order to be able to get out of the logjam—the impossible concrete construction that is being created. It will disintegrate, causing enormous trouble for the rest of Europe. A dangerous Europe is being created and it will crack like ““The Fall of the House of Usher””. It is completely inflexible and it needs to be changed. It can be changed only by renegotiation. In the words of John of Gaunt,"““That England, that was wont to conquer others,""Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.””" He said that that had been done"““With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds””—" and that is what the treaty is.