European Union (Amendment) Bill

I rise with some trepidation. Many Members here are veterans of this important debate, having been present for every day of it, and passions run very high. I hope that I shall resist the urge to become too passionate—or, indeed, as discourteous as some speakers on both sides of the House have been, although I understand that that is because they feel so strongly about the issue. I am speaking tonight because I experienced a sense of guilt. I have been in the House for a long time. I arrived at the same time as my old friend the hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Mr. Shepherd), who was at the London School of Economics with me. We have always disagreed about Europe, but one day recently he chided me: ““You have been in this place for a long time, but you are not even going to speak on the European issue.”” He also teased me because I had popped into the Chamber and made a couple of interventions, which he said did not constitute a serious contribution. Last week I sat through six and a half hours of debate in the hope of being called. The Bill was in Committee, and as you will remember, Mr. Deputy Speaker, you were in the Chair. I was not called, but I must say that it was a great educational experience, although it was a bit like entering a rather exclusive club—a club that not many people can join because its members have been together for so long, are familiar with each other's nuances and know who will say what, and bounce off each other in a very interesting way. It took me back to the days when I was, I suppose, something of an academic sociologist—