European Union (Amendment) Bill

I do not know whom the noble Lord talks to in the City but I assure him that there is very great concern in the City about MFID and about European intervention in our own financial services regulation. London has been a huge success, and I have worked for a British financial services organisation for most of my working life. I now work for a Japanese one but at least it has a London subsidiary. We have to be very careful. I believe that the United Kingdom punches above its weight in the world and that we are in danger of transferring too much of our decision-making to Brussels when we can do better by retaining our own ability to deal with the emerging and expanding powers in Europe, Asia and the Americas and around the world. I believe that the majority of people think that we have had enough Europe. Therefore, I would strongly support a double referendum asking, ““Do you want the Lisbon treaty or not?””, to which I think the majority of the people of this country would say, ““No””, and ““Do you want to be in the EU or not?””, to which I think they would say, ““Yes, we want to stay in the EU””. Thereby, we would persuade the EU to allow for a two-tier system where member states that wanted to retain their sovereignty could retain some kind of associated status and outer ring, and those who wanted political union could go ahead and achieve that. When I worked in Brussels in 2006, I was absolutely persuaded that that is what very many people in Europe want, but the British people do not think that that is what Europe is about. Therefore, I think that we have a dilemma. In these circumstances, it was right that all political parties promised a referendum and I think it is wrong that we should now try to fudge the situation and cancel the promises that were made.