European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, perhaps the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, has not seen the letter that William Hague sent yesterday, which referred to Monday’s debate and suggested that the Government had made no concession whatsoever on parliamentary scrutiny. I will answer the other question as I continue with my speech. If one is making a comparison between Harold Wilson and David Cameron, I note that Melanie Phillips, in Monday’s Daily Mail, drew the comparison between David Cameron and Hamlet. She stated that the opposition leader’s stance, "““turns Mr Cameron into the Hamlet of the European debate—an awesome talent for speeches denouncing tyranny, but a complete inability to act against it””." Melanie Phillips is, of course, much more strongly in favour of the former Tory policy adviser the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, whom she says argues that: "““Britain should renegotiate the terms of its EU membership, restricting it to trade agreements and common security and environment policies””." As we know, there is a range of opinion on the Conservative Benches. On Monday, the noble Lord, Lord Vinson, said that the European Union is incompatible with British democracy. That is a fairly strong statement. We look forward with interest to hearing the range of views on this referendum on the treaty. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, that it is a referendum, not the referendum; there are different sorts of referenda and we shall hear various views from the Conservative Benches—from the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway, for example.