Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill (Money) (No. 3)

My hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) will doubtless seek to catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I am not going to fall into an argument about this, but what is certainly true is that most of the Scottish Members—and indeed, I gather, at least 40 other Labour MPs—would prefer not to see the Prime Minister's venture being carried through. I want to conclude with the following observation. The Prime Minister wants to spend public money on a venture for which there is neither justification nor public demand. It is true that politicians, politics and Parliament have sunk low in public esteem—I recognise that fact—but a change in the voting system, funded by the money resolution before us, will not address that. I believe that the principal reason that we are so disliked is that the public have come to realise what most of us know: namely, that we are not doing the job that we ought to be doing. We are failing to hold the Executive to account. We are failing to scrutinise legislation in the way in which it ought to be scrutinised. We have allowed the powers of this House to be usurped by Government and we have created the elected dictatorship.