Political Parties and Elections Bill

I see the difficulties of setting a precise date or a number of days, but it seems to me that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, lives on a different part of Planet Politics if the treasurer of his association spends two months in the Caribbean each year. He is a lucky chap to have a treasurer who is so well off as to be able to do that. My noble friend is attempting, as he is entitled to at this stage of the Bill, to get some idea from the Government of what they expect of the Electoral Commission. We had a lengthy debate on the first amendment on the meaning of the word "appropriate"; now we are debating what is a "reasonable" time for disclosure. We are putting an awful lot of weight on the judgment of the Electoral Commission, which is permanent, empowered and embodied by professionals. On the other side of the scale there is the treasurer of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. We need to consider the issue of equality of arms. On one side you have our fellow citizens undertaking this role for one political party or another as a sense of civic duty; on the other side you have a large organisation which will be more empowered by the Bill if it is passed. As I say, we need to make sure that we have equality of arms. I think that my noble friend is trying to get from the Minister a sense of how these great powers will be used. I understand the need for flexibility and I understand how hard cases make bad law, but we need to know clearly in the Committee today how the Government see the powers being used. It is part of finding out the intention behind these quite loose phrases, although perhaps they have to be loose.