European Union (Amendment) Bill

Today we have a good opportunity to underline the importance and worth of this Chamber. I have always been impatient with those who talk of this House adding value to the legislative process as though our function were merely to make the legislative sausage-machine churn out Bills of better quality and in greater quantity. In fact, we have far more important functions, such as preventing the House of Commons from unilaterally extending the life of a Parliament or otherwise abusing the constitution. Today we have a duty of enormous constitutional significance. Surely we have a duty to make Members of the other place honour the promises that they all made to their constituents that there would be a referendum on the matters formerly in the constitutional treaty and now in the treaty of Lisbon. I put it in that way because I am shocked and amazed at the way in which some people have suggested that MPs and the Government are freed from their promises because the constitutional treaty no longer exists. Common sense and decency tell us that we should look at the substance, not the form. We are talking of the Government’s promise to hold a referendum on specific matters that would alter the functioning and scope of the activities of the European Union. These are matters formerly in the constitutional treaty and now in the Lisbon treaty, such as a full-time President of the European Council, barred from holding a national office; the Council becoming a formal EU institution, subject to jurisdiction of the Court; the coming into existence a Foreign Minister in all but name and an EU diplomatic service; the treaty being amendable without a formal treaty negotiation; the EU getting explicit legal personality; the Court having jurisdiction over justice and home affairs; the Charter of Fundamental Rights; and the abandonment of the veto in some 40 to 60 areas. Those are some of the matters in respect of which a referendum was promised and those are matters in respect of which a referendum is being denied. There are some who want this House to remain a largely nominated House. I have to say that if this House, as presently constituted, is not even prepared to use its limited powers to make the Government honour their promise to the British people, it does not deserve to survive.