Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Fortunately, in the 21st century, it is possible to follow the proceedings while moving some paper—and I did hear what the noble Lord said earlier. The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, said from a sedentary position that I am sensitive about it. When I made my remarks earlier, both the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris, and the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, said that I had my facts wrong—I think the term was my ““century wrong””. However, I made no threats whatever. I merely pointed out that in the 19th century the House of Commons had lost some of its liberties in the management of business because of abuse of procedure. In order to check, I went to the House of Commons Information Office factsheet P10, which did indeed say that the guillotine was first employed, essentially as it is now, on the Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) Bill in 1887. Interestingly, the Minister who introduced the innovation in 1887 argued that he was doing so because it was, "““absolutely essential in the interests of the honour and dignity of Parliament””," and that although Mr Gladstone, "““referred to the proposal as ‘a further abridgement of parliamentary liberty’””," he, "““did not lead his party into the lobbies against it””," because, "““he had been Prime Minister in 1881 when a simple prototype form of guillotine had been used to bring an end to the committee stage of the Protection of Person and Property (Ireland) Bill)””.—[Official Report, Commons, 10/6/1887; col. 1596.]" I was saying simply that there is an historical analogy; when the system breaks down, there are consequences. I made no threats, and I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, wants to apologise for suggesting that I did not know my history.