European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord knows that I have a long track record, of which I am very proud, of being positive about our membership of the European Union. I joined the party that was the party of Europe, which it still is—it is just that Europe has developed in a way that many of us criticise. We would far prefer Europe to be developed in a way that made Britain feel ““at ease with itself””, to quote the previous Prime Minister, John Major. We need a Britain at ease with its membership of the European Union. How do we do that? As I say, I have found that the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, in referring to the fact that we are always on the back foot, had an important point. How do we ensure that we are able to get across the positive case? In 2004 Tony Blair decided to publish a leaflet. This speech was triggered by a warm hearted gesture on the part of the noble Baroness the Leader of the House. When she saw this amendment on the Marshalled List, she sent a large package round to my office containing the many documents that the Government have produced. In many ways she triggered quite a bit of what I am about to say, because she included the Guide to the European Union. I think that by including this she wanted to demonstrate that the Government were getting across a positive case for Europe. When I saw that document—which has a beautiful photograph of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on the front cover and says that he wishes to explain how the treaty of Lisbon will allow, "““the enlarged European Union to work more effectively and efficiently””," I said, ““I wonder whether a previous leaflet was issued?””. I found a leaflet that was published in 2004, which my noble friend Lord Howell referred to. We have compared the two documents, and they are virtually identical.