European Union (Amendment) Bill

I was about to go on to say that there is no third way. You are either in the European Union or you are not. If you are in the European Union, as the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, said earlier, you have to apply the rules of the club; otherwise, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Slynn, said earlier, there will be chaos and anarchy. This is a club in which there is the rule of law. Of course, we can defy the European Court of Justice but that would be incompatible with membership. Ultimately, we would be found to be in infringement of the EU treaties, and either by our courts or the ECJ incompatible legislation would be struck down. Therefore, while we are in the European Union we have to respect the primacy of EU law. The noble Lord, Lord Waddington, said that he was not advocating leaving the EU but—I am sorry but I have to repeat this—there is no third option. You are in and respect the rules—and ultimately can be found in breach either by our courts or the Luxembourg court—or you exercise the absolute right of Parliament, which is supreme, to leave the EU by repealing the European Communities Act and then we are no longer subject to the rules of the EU. After several hours of debate, the attempt to try and find some other option simply is not there. It is clutching at straws. It does not exist.