European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, like the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, I am a member of the Select Committee on the Constitution; in fact, I am the seventh member of the committee to speak. I ought to point out to Members of the House that we are all speaking as individuals, even though we are members of the committee. This is not like a debate on a Motion to take note on a Select Committee report. We have all come to our conclusions—sometimes different and sometimes the same—based on the information that we have had, the data that we have seen, the witnesses from whom we have heard and, above all, what the Lord President said when she kindly came to address us last Wednesday. It is a shame that she does not have a copy of the verbatim report of the proceedings, but I have looked through it and I do not believe that that matters at all. I have only a few comments to make and will not detain your Lordships. The whole debate has gone from tiny details to huge issues. We were told that the British Government would die in the ditch for the red lines. I have always believed that to be so. Why, therefore, are the Government afraid of presenting their views on a situation in which we would want to opt in? Why are they afraid of presenting their views to both Houses of Parliament for debate, as is the normal procedure for debates in this House and as is the normal procedure for any government proposal in the Queen’s Speech? This is the old, time-tested formula that has been in existence for centuries. I do not buy into the suggestion that, if we did not grasp something that came out of Brussels and go for it within eight or 10 weeks, we would be doomed for ever. That message is coming out from those who do not want to support the admirable proposal of the noble Lord, Lord Goodlad. I also do not buy into the view that a review in three years’ time is a great thing and utterly praiseworthy. By that time, we will have absolutely no hope whatever of changing anything. We can review, but the purpose of a review, particularly in business, is to ensure that we do not make the same mistakes again. By that time, there would be nothing to make a mistake about. I do not buy into that idea. This is not about dealing with between 50 to 90 opt-ins. We are dealing with just those on the justice and home affairs issues that are fundamental to our constitution. We are not dealing with anything to do with the size of this, the price of that or the length of the other; this is fundamental to our constitution, so we should not bypass Parliament and the normal procedures of scrutiny and debate. I come unstuck with what some speakers have already said because we are not talking about the House of Lords saying, ““You cannot do this””; we are talking about the normal procedure. We would, as we always do, ask the Government to review something, the matter would go back to the House of Commons and we would know where the final decision would be made. I really want us to think clearly about this issue. We should think not about the 50 to 90 opt-ins or opt-outs, but about what we are doing to our long-term jurisdiction as parliamentarians.