Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, I was going to intervene briefly in any case, but the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, has given me so much material that I cannot guarantee that it will be as brief as I thought. His whole contribution was as though absolutely nothing had happened in the way of electoral reform during the last 15 years. A host of different electoral systems have been introduced. I have not as yet written my memoirs about the period of the Labour Government, but I can reveal to the House this little bit of information. Every time the word went round that we were suggesting there should be a change in the electoral system for Europe, local government, Scotland, Wales or wherever, I always did my best within government to try and prevent that happening. There is a chapter in my memoirs that I shall call ““I told you so””. Before the European proportional representation system was introduced, people like the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, although I cannot speak for the noble Lord, and my noble friend Lord Rooker—for on this matter we have not always agreed—predicted with absolute confidence: ““Look at all the ‘wasted’ Labour votes in Surrey and Sussex. Look at all the ‘wasted’ Conservative votes in the north-east. They will start flocking to the polls as soon as we have a proportional system and their votes won’t be ‘wasted’ any longer””. It has not happened. That is not me in a seminar saying that. It has not happened.