European Union (Amendment) Bill

It is getting late and I shall try not to detain the Committee for too long. I am extremely grateful to the Minister for his generous remarks. I did not expect them and I do not deserve them, but it was kind of him. The noble Lord, Lord Roper, rightly quoted against me—perhaps not against me, but with me—my remarks that I thought it would be a good thing to reflect a little more the weight of population. I said that and I still believe it, and it is reflected in the treaty. But that is not where the shoe pinches; that is at another stage of the triple majority process. So although I welcome it, it is not really the main point. I struggle with the thought—perhaps my logic fails me at this hour of the night—that it can be both easier to pass and easier to block legislation, which appears to be what is being said by those who disagree with my analysis and that of the LSE. I am grateful for the critique of the LSE analysis and I shall certainly look into it. If the LSE has it wrong, it has it wrong, and it will not be quoted by my lips again. But if it has it right, you may hear from me again. The Minister returned to the question of effectiveness, a theme which has been raised quite often today. I am in general in favour of effectiveness, but in the matter of passing laws—where we already have an enormous mass of laws, where the weight is so great and where there are recurrent promises from generation to generation that they will be cut back by 25 per cent while the exact opposite happens—my enthusiasm for greater effectiveness is considerably muted. Gridlock was quoted in connection with matters such as climate change legislation. If there had been gridlock on biofuel limits and on the emissions trading system, we would be a great deal better off because we could have used that gridlock to give some thought to these proposals, which have turned out to be extremely ill judged. We might then have got them right in the first place instead of struggling to get them right the second, third and fourth time round, or even cancel them altogether. My main purpose, however, on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, was to highlight the economic costs of EU regulation and the danger that this will escalate further by easing the process of passing new laws. That, at least, is agreed on by both sides of the Committee. I shall reflect carefully on the thoughtful points that have been made. I may return to this issue at a later stage, but for the moment I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.