Political Parties and Elections Bill

I disagree completely with the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, and I find myself aligning myself with my local MP yet again, who I think objected vociferously about the fact that his amendment could not be voted on whereas this random amendment was. Again, it is not for any of us to criticise the procedure of the House of Commons; we merely note what happened. As I understand it, this important issue was passed without debate. Whether or not the amendment was moved formally would be a more legalistic and technical matter. I do not think that what the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, suggested was a compromise. It was just a bit daft. My noble friend Lord Tyler’s constituency for most of his life as an MP was North Cornwall. You would not want to state, "North Cornwall in the county of Cornwall". That is fairly obvious to anyone. There is a real problem. This is an extraordinary and rather ridiculous proposal. If individual politicians require protection, individual politicians should get protection to the extent that they require it. There is no doubt about that. Pretending that they can hide where they live is nonsense. It is precisely because we live in the age of the internet, with information winging its way around, that if you want to find out where somebody lives you can find out pretty quickly nowadays. It is usually, though not always, fairly accurate. If you want to find any piece of information about anybody, you can find it fairly quickly on this astonishing internet that we have now, so I do not think that politicians can hide. This risks turning politicians into a cosseted class and it is not on. We are talking about politicians, including candidates, and not only elected representatives, as the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, says. How far will we go? Why only Members of the Westminster Parliament? Why not Members of the Scottish Parliament, Members of the Welsh Assembly and Members of the European Parliament? Why not councillors? I have recently taken part in a discussion forum on the internet—as some of us waste our time doing nowadays—about whether councillors should have their home addresses put on the council website. I feel very strongly that we should. It is astonishing to me that anyone could think that I could do my job as a councillor without people knowing where I live. I have spent perhaps 45 years putting out leaflets that tell people where I live, giving them my telephone number and, now, giving them my e-mail addresses. I do it because, to be an active elected representative in a democratic system, where you live and how people can get in touch with you are absolutely fundamental. It is part of what we do all the time, so I find it astonishing that any candidates would want to hide their addresses.