European Union (Amendment) Bill

We on these Benches have one technical problem with this amendment. My noble friend Lord Roberts of Llandudno tells me that the Welsh question is not entirely the same as the English question. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, as a fluent Welsh speaker, will recognise that. Let us leave that aside for one moment, however, and address the underlying question. Is this really the treaty to end all treaties, or is it, like the Amsterdam and Nice treaties, a further amendment of the treaty of Rome, which it is therefore appropriate for Parliament to ratify? We have heard a lot from Members on the Conservative Front Bench over the past six days, occasionally trying to make fun of the Liberal Democrats, often to cover what seemed to be their confusion. Some rather rambling speeches have resulted from their lack of conviction and the fact that the arguments that they have been asked to make are not ones in which they believe. We have had a Front Bench wavering between the Conservatives’ Eurosceptic supporters and the remaining, but distinguished and committed, Europeans on their Benches, without much guidance from their party leadership as to what their party’s overall position should be. I recall that, in the ratification debates on the Amsterdam and Nice treaties, William Hague was bitterly Eurosceptic, telling us that this would lead to the immediate creation of a European army and warning of dreadful consequences if each was passed. Much more sensibly, David Cameron has avoided making his overall policy on the European Union at all clear. I note from eurofacts, that valuable source of information on the European Union, the noble Lord, Lord Willoughby de Broke, telling us that this is a treaty that, "““will fundamentally and finally tilt the balance of power away from the nation states to the unelected Eurocracy in Brussels””." I am not quite sure whether the noble Lord, Lord Howell, agrees with that or whether he thinks that it is not entirely the case. I heard the noble Lord on a previous day say that we were playing cricket while others were looking after their own interests. I was reminded of that wonderful cartoon from, I think, 1972, which showed the other members of the European Community putting on their soccer kit and Sir Alec Douglas-Home putting on his pads—the decent Englishman going into bat with these foreigners who do not understand how to play by our rules. We see this as an amending treaty. It is not the European constitution. There are some significant and important differences between what was originally proposed in the overhyped convention and what is in this amending treaty. Many of us, myself included, have been through ratification debates on a series of amending treaties and have listened to the likes of the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, and others telling us each time that Maastricht or Amsterdam or Nice was the final straw that would break British liberties, parliamentary sovereignty and everything else. They have not. We recognise that, as the world changes, as this country becomes increasingly tied in with its partners on the Continent and as, in a whole host of ways, our economy and our society require international co-operation, some changes need to be made. We also recognise the justification for this amending treaty. The European Union now consists of 27 member states and will, within the next five years, consist of more than 30 member states, which also will require a number of amendments. For those reasons, we on these Benches will not support this rather dishonest Conservative amendment, which, like many others, is a means of covering over the deep divisions within the Conservative ranks.