Scotland Bill

And caravans. I do not want to detain the House, but I know that my noble friend Lord Steel got into some difficulty with dogs when he gave the former President Ceausescu a puppy dog following a state visit in 1974. My noble friend gave one of his puppies to Ceausescu. When they had gone shooting, the birds were recovered by children, so my noble friend sent one of his fine Labradors to Ceausescu. Many years later, when the regime collapsed and the press arrived, my noble friend received a call from an outraged journalist who asked, ““Did you give this dreadful dictator a dog?””. My noble friend explained that he had done so as a result of a state visit and that it had been a courteous thing to do. The journalist said, ““Did you realise that this dog had its own coach, its own servants and a whole palace to live in?””. I say to my noble friend that dogs, politics and tax are best not mixed. My noble friend suggested a tax on plastic bags. The mind boggles as to how large firms such as Tesco and others would operate if there were different taxes on plastic bags north and south of the border.