Political Parties and Elections Bill

I shall give my noble friend a little time to think of his reply to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. I was somewhat surprised to hear the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, describe STV as the simplest system ever devised. Certainly that is not my view and I do not think that it is the view of many of us around here. Having said that, I was pleased to hear him express some support for my noble friend’s amendment. It strikes me as being a truly wonderful Conservative amendment in that it says that we must get the Electoral Commission back to its core regulatory and supervisory functions and strip away the extra bits which are not necessary, which it is not necessarily very good at and which are possibly a waste of money, or, if they are not a waste of money, that money can be put to better use. It is nine years since I was involved in the passage of the 2000 Act through this House and I cannot remember what line our party took at the time on what the various functions of the Electoral Commission should be. This may have been one of the small matters added on as a result of amendments put forward by one or other side or by Back-Benchers. Whatever it was, my noble friend certainly has a point here, and nine years later I think we can say that this could be stripped from the commission with good effect and that we could allow it to stick to its core functions. For that reason, I imagine that my noble friend will be grateful not only for my support but for the qualified support from the Liberal Democrat Front Bench.