European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, for, in his own words, passing such a clean ball to me. My principal points have been more than adequately made by my noble and learned friend Lord Howe, my noble friends Lord Brittan, Lord Tugendhat, Lord Plumb and others. At this late hour I do not intend to burden the House by repeating them. We have here an interesting spectacle. Her Majesty’s Government are doing the right thing, for reasons that are reprehensible. Her Majesty’s Opposition are doing the wrong thing, for reasons that are, in general, sincerely held. Sadly, this spectacle has almost become a tradition in British politics for EU matters. The rule seems to be, as the noble Lord, Lord McNally, observed, that the Official Opposition, with varying degrees of sincerity, do the wrong thing, while British Governments, with varying degrees of ducking and weaving, generally do the right thing. I thought that the intervention made by the noble Lord, Lord McNally, was rather ““Euroer than thou””, to coin a phrase. With respect, I say to him and to those who sit on the Benches with him that the difficulties and compromises of being the Government or the Official Opposition are unlikely to trouble the Liberal Party in the near future. My hope is that today’s Opposition, fulfilling as they are their traditional role in these matters, will not give sufficient hostages to fortune as to inhibit their ability to take the right decisions in the national interest when in government. This places those of us who served in previous Administrations in a rather awkward position. I served as a minor functionary in the Governments led by my noble friend Lady Thatcher and Sir John Major. We offered no referendum on the Single European Act or on Maastricht, which were the right decisions. Referenda, pace purely local issues such as licensing in Wales, to which my noble and learned friend Lord Howe referred, are always something of a challenge to the principle of representative parliamentary democracy. I am opposed to them on principle. In this case, whatever quibbles there may be about whether the Lisbon treaty is or is not substantially the same as the originally proposed constitution, the fact is that the Government gave an undertaking to hold a referendum. They are reneging on that simply because they think that they would lose. I am not sure that they would lose, but I am sure that their performance on this matter will seriously damage their reputation. Others favour a referendum because they think that they would win and, in doing so, would advance a position that is at best hostile to the Union and is frequently a flimsy cover for an eventual move to withdrawal. On the parliamentary process, I am pleased to note that the Government in another place follow the example of previous Conservative Administrations; they use a strong three-line Whip. In your Lordships’ House, such matters are dealt with in a more restrained manner. Traditional loyalties notwithstanding, in this House, as my noble friend Lord Howell pointed out in his opening remarks, each of us has a duty to do what we personally believe to be right. I propose to do just that.