European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, that is the position in which the Government have found themselves. I was talking about Parliament, about which we all care. We want to see this House of Lords upholding its duties, which are to amend and improve and to argue with consistency and accuracy about what is necessary, and we want Parliament to be trusted in the way that everyone always calls for. However, if we push through a measure without the say of the people—the say of the people which is encouraged in a document about the present European Union, which says: "““You can join the debate and have your say on the future of Europe””," but apparently they cannot have their say on the future of Europe—and if we reduce to mere scrutiny the realities of parliamentary control, then Parliament itself will suffer. The truth is that in this debate, despite the sincerity of the arguments of the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, and others, we have really won the argument. We would have won the key votes as well if the Liberal Democrats had not adopted their bizarre and supine approach to everything and anything to do with this Bill, because I believe that the arguments are on our side. I respect what has been put up against us but I do not think that it stands up in the face of the facts, in the face of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in the face of the arguments of Europe’s leaders, as the noble Lord, Lord Lamont, said, or in the face of the frank and candid assessments of those who founded the constitutional treaty on which the text is based. Because of all those things, it really is time to put this matter to a vote and to test the opinion of the House. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 29) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 218; Not-Contents, 280.