European Union (Amendment) Bill

The noble Lord obviously was not listening when I read out the quotations from all 26 heads of state in the European Union, who said, ““This is a constitutional treaty, thank you very much””. Of course it is a constitutional treaty. I do not accept it, and I will not accept it. I am sorry about that. I said that the fact that none of the Governments had offered a referendum on the Maastricht treaty was one reason why we did not have a referendum on this treaty. We should have a referendum, however, first because it is in the manifesto, and secondly because, as my noble friend Lord Pearson said, several wrongs do not make a right. Where do we stop? Why should we not have a referendum on this treaty just because we have not had one on previous treaties? Do we stop and say, ““Yes, let’s consider this. Let’s offer it to the British people””, or not, even though we have not had referendums before? All parties gave a manifesto commitment to have a referendum on this treaty, so we should have one. My noble friend is quite right; five wrongs do not make a right, and it is time to have a referendum. I am quite sure that we will debate that in due course. Meanwhile, I support the amendment wholeheartedly.