UK Parliament / Open data

European Union (Amendment) Bill

Debate on bills on Tuesday, 11 March 2008, in the House of Commons, led by David Miliband. The answering member was Lord Hague of Richmond.
European Union (Amendment) Bill. Third reading debate. Agreed to on division (346 votes to 206). Bill passed.
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
473 c152-254 
Session
2007-08
Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Legislative stage
Third reading
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Related items
European Union (Amendment) Bill. (Explanatory note Bill 48-EN published).
Monday, 17 December 2007
Bills
House of Commons
Proceeding contributions
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c164-5 (Link to this contribution) That is a good point, which has been raised during our debates. According to some of the documents l...
Bob Spink | 473 c164 (Link to this contribution) Does it concern my right hon. Friend that we are being asked to ratify a treaty whose full extent an...

Show all contributions (327)
Bob Spink | 473 c164 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way on that point?
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c163-4 (Link to this contribution) I begin on a note of agreement with the Foreign Secretary. Given that there are so many disagreement...
Denis MacShane | 473 c166 (Link to this contribution) If I am following the right hon. Gentleman's logic correctly, he is saying that the treaty that we a...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c166 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way first to the right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) because he was the firs...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c165-6 (Link to this contribution) I will give way in due course. The constitutional doctrine now appears to be that a referendum is h...
Denis MacShane | 473 c165 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
William Cash | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) I am particularly grateful to my right hon. Friend for fumigating the Government's speeches on the w...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way first to my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Cash).
Barry Sheerman | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) I clearly understand the difference between the right hon. Gentleman's view and that of the hon. Mem...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) Given the growth of the EU's powers, British sovereignty and the ultimate supremacy of Parliament ne...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friend and I have discussed these matters for a decade and more, he knows that I entirely...
Ian Taylor | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to chide the Labour Government for the confusion they got t...
Ann Clwyd | 473 c168 (Link to this contribution) As the right hon. Gentleman knows, I was a Member of the European Parliament for five years. One of ...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c167 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Member for Stone could easily take the hon. Gentleman aside for several hours to ...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c168 (Link to this contribution) I wish to end up in the European Union but not with this treaty. That is why there should be, and sh...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c168-9 (Link to this contribution) I mean none of those things. Only the Liberal Democrats have gone on about the article that allows a...
Ed Davey | 473 c168 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman seems to be extolling a new potential Conservative policy when, in response...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c168 (Link to this contribution) I have not yet come to the Liberal Democrats. I shall do so later, but I give way to the hon. Gentle...
Bernard Jenkin | 473 c161 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary give way?
David Miliband | 473 c161-2 (Link to this contribution) I am going to bring my remarks to a conclusion. This scaremongering from the Conservative party is ...
David Miliband | 473 c162-3 (Link to this contribution) Excellent. So 47 Conservative MPs— in other words, one quarter of the modern Conservative party—supp...
David Miliband | 473 c162 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to see the hon. Gentleman nod. He has moved from the fringes of his party to the centre...
David Miliband | 473 c162 (Link to this contribution) No. The truth is that the Conservative party has drifted so far towards the fringes of the better o...
Michael Connarty | 473 c154 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary has mentioned opt-ins on justice and home affairs. The three major issues are ...
David Miliband | 473 c154-5 (Link to this contribution) I will certainly address those three issues. The Government face a challenge, because in the end it ...
Bernard Jenkin | 473 c154 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary repeats that the treaty will streamline, improve and achieve wonderful things....
David Miliband | 473 c154 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a good case for getting on with reforming the EU's institutions. He also ma...
William Cash | 473 c155 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary just said that we need the treaty because it will enable us to make further re...
David Miliband | 473 c155 (Link to this contribution) I will come to that point directly, because it is important. A similar amendment tabled by the hon. ...
William Cash | 473 c155 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary give way?
David Miliband | 473 c155 (Link to this contribution) Let me make some progress. I shall be happy to return to the hon. Gentleman later. Let me start wit...
David Miliband | 473 c154 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an important point, as she did in her speech last week. We are considering an a...
Geraldine Smith | 473 c154 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend confirm again that, if the treaty is carried and ratified by Europe, we wi...
David Miliband | 473 c156 (Link to this contribution) I will address the division of competences across the EU, but I assure my hon. Friend not only that ...
David Heathcoat-Amory | 473 c156 (Link to this contribution) If the Foreign Secretary is so proud of the text, why did the Government table 295 amendments to an ...
David Miliband | 473 c156 (Link to this contribution) We tabled amendments on justice and home affairs, for example, precisely to ensure that our rights t...
David Miliband | 473 c156-7 (Link to this contribution) I have answered the question on health. I assure my hon. Friend that this treaty text confirms a str...
David Miliband | 473 c157 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to give way on that point.
David Drew | 473 c156 (Link to this contribution) Does the Foreign Secretary understand the unease felt by some Labour Members about the further threa...
David Miliband | 473 c156 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may say that, but they were members of a Conservative Government articulating Con...
Ian Davidson | 473 c152 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary give way? [Laughter.]
David Miliband | 473 c152 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. On Third Reading, it is traditional to rec...
Ian Davidson | 473 c152 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary tell me the difference between the Liberals' full participation in debate...
David Miliband | 473 c152 (Link to this contribution) Talking of outstanding contributors, I see that my hon. Friend could not resist the temptation to in...
Marquess of Lothian | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) One question has not been answered in our lengthy debate. Where is the mandate for the Government to...
David Miliband | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) We debated that at length last week. The House gave its answer by a majority of 63 on that question....
Chris Bryant | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) Part of the mandate derives from the fact that there have been 44 Divisions so far on the Bill and t...
David Miliband | 473 c152 (Link to this contribution) Maybe my hon. Friend is not convinced. I want to pay tribute to some of the hon. Members who have g...
Ian Lucas | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary give way?
David Miliband | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) I was about to come to my hon. Friend, but I am happy to give way.
Ian Lucas | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) I was simply going to ask the Foreign Secretary whether he agrees that one of the most enlightening ...
David Miliband | 473 c154 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has regularly contributed to the debate, and he makes a good point. We set out our a...
Speaker | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) Order. We must have calmness.
David Miliband | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) The Conservative party tried peddling its Europhobia at the 2001 general election, and we all know w...
Mark Harper | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary give way?
David Miliband | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) No, I want to make this point, because— [Interruption.]
Speaker | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) Order. Allow the Secretary of State to continue his speech. It does not appear that he is giving way...
David Miliband | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) I was coming to the obsession with the myths about the EU. Last week, we heard one that I thought ha...
David Miliband | 473 c160-1 (Link to this contribution) We will test the democratic mandate at the next general election and see what the result is. The ri...
Mark Harper | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Foreign Secretary for giving way. I want to take him back to the point that he ...
David Miliband | 473 c161 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend says that that is rubbish, and he is absolutely right. The hon. Member for Rutland an...
Malcolm Rifkind | 473 c157 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary is entitled to say that in justice and home affairs, the Government can demons...
David Miliband | 473 c157 (Link to this contribution) I do not know how that article slipped my mind; my hon. Friend has made an important point.
David Miliband | 473 c158 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend draws an important link to the past. I did not know that, but I am very happy to agre...
Mike Gapes | 473 c158 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend believe that it would be particularly apposite if the House were to pass t...
Lord Lilley | 473 c157-8 (Link to this contribution) Just now, the Foreign Secretary said that we had opted into 42 immigration and asylum measures, but ...
David Miliband | 473 c158 (Link to this contribution) It is not as simple as that. The right hon. Gentleman is right in that if the measure was not change...
David Miliband | 473 c159 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes exactly the right point. Conservative Members say that they want to will the en...
David Miliband | 473 c159 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to my hon. Friend, but then I am going to make some progress.
Hugh Bayley | 473 c159 (Link to this contribution) The Conservative party says that it supports the Government policy that aid should be targeted at po...
David Miliband | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) I think that it is at general elections that we convince the British people and Labour has a pretty ...
Graham Stuart | 473 c160 (Link to this contribution) The Foreign Secretary is speaking eloquently as usual, so can he explain why he has failed so specta...
David Miliband | 473 c159 (Link to this contribution) Well, I am in the middle of a sentence, so I would be grateful if the hon. Gentleman would at least ...
Graham Stuart | 473 c159 (Link to this contribution) Will the Foreign Secretary give way?
David Miliband | 473 c159 (Link to this contribution) I am going to make some progress. It is also worth explaining how the treaty will improve the accou...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c185 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has mentioned the men in white coats. Is it not the case that many people out the...
Ed Davey | 473 c185-6 (Link to this contribution) I hope that I am not out of order in totally agreeing with the hon. Gentleman. What about the other...
William Cash | 473 c185 (Link to this contribution) I make no apology for saying that I would prefer an association of nation states. Does the hon. Gen...
Ed Davey | 473 c185 (Link to this contribution) That is very interesting, as the Foreign Secretary is saying from a sedentary position. As we know f...
Ed Davey | 473 c184 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Gentleman, because he has some ideas for reform.
Ed Davey | 473 c186-7 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree. Liberal Democrats believe that it is useful to talk to and work with colleagues ...
David Chaytor | 473 c186 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is profitable to look at the turnout in the municipal election...
Ed Davey | 473 c186 (Link to this contribution) I share the concern about falling turnout, but let us be clear: turnout is falling not only in elect...
Ed Davey | 473 c187-8 (Link to this contribution) I agree, and I think it incumbent on the Government to spell out those safeguards, perhaps in the ot...
Mark Harper | 473 c188 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman tell us what measures currently exist that prohibit European Governments fro...
Ed Davey | 473 c188 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman had read the treaty, he would know that some of the issues that I have describ...
Lord Lilley | 473 c188 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Gentleman knows, the treaty gives the power to make energy policy under majority voting ...
Peter Bone | 473 c187 (Link to this contribution) This is probably the last speech that the hon. Gentleman will make during this marathon debate on Eu...
Ed Davey | 473 c187 (Link to this contribution) I have been grateful to the hon. Gentleman throughout our debates, because he was one of the plucky ...
David Heath | 473 c187 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right—the treaty makes important advances in terms of subsidiarity and the role of...
Paul Rowen | 473 c189 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend aware that one of the additional provisions of the Lisbon treaty is that the EU in...
Ed Davey | 473 c188-9 (Link to this contribution) That argument was completely destroyed in our debates in this House on energy, and the Foreign Secre...
Ed Davey | 473 c189 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right, and that is another example why the Lisbon treaty is a good thing. The EU i...
William Cash | 473 c190 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am sure that the Democracy Movement would be extremely ...
Speaker | 473 c190 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman's comments are, in fact, a matter for debate.
Ed Davey | 473 c189-90 (Link to this contribution) I have not been to Rotherham recently, but I would be happy to receive a copy of that leaflet and to...
Speaker | 473 c191 (Link to this contribution) As I have said, a number of hon. Members want to contribute to this debate, so perhaps the hon. Gent...
Ed Davey | 473 c190 (Link to this contribution) What ought to be most shocking for the Democracy Movement's supporters, who have supported a referen...
Speaker | 473 c190 (Link to this contribution) Order. I think that the hon. Gentleman really ought to be relating his remarks—perhaps his concludin...
Rob Marris | 473 c191 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman will, in a sense, invert his comments. In the unlikely event tha...
Ed Davey | 473 c191 (Link to this contribution) I shall certainly relate my remarks to the Bill. I hope that the Conservatives will tell us what ““n...
Speaker | 473 c192 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I remind the hon. Gentleman that on Third Reading we are debating what is in the Bill?
Ed Davey | 473 c192 (Link to this contribution) You will be pleased to learn that I am about to finish, Madam Deputy Speaker. [Interruption.] I am n...
Keith Vaz | 473 c192 (Link to this contribution) It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey). I could say...
Keith Vaz | 473 c192 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would have taken part.
William Cash | 473 c193 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman reflect on the fact that he played a good part in the European Reform ...
Keith Vaz | 473 c193 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to hear that the hon. Gentleman, whose beliefs on Europe are sincere, is so much in f...
Keith Vaz | 473 c193 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. My right hon. Friend and I both know that to be the case. I am pleased that there is no ...
Denis MacShane | 473 c204-5 (Link to this contribution) Whether the hon. Gentleman likes it or not, the House of Commons is democratically elected. I am fas...
Denis MacShane | 473 c204 (Link to this contribution) I always enjoy the speeches of the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash). He has been making largely the ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c204 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is talking about the Governments. What about what the people want Europe to...
Denis MacShane | 473 c205 (Link to this contribution) I had better give way first to a Conservative colleague, and then I will revert to the Scottish vers...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 473 c205 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman and pay tribute to the sincerity with which he holds his views, alt...
Denis MacShane | 473 c205 (Link to this contribution) That treaty said to the Pentagon and to the bosses of the red army, ““You can't do that which you've...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c205 (Link to this contribution) Are not treaties something that we join and agree to be in together as opposed to something that we ...
Denis MacShane | 473 c206 (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Gentleman actually refers to an article that Churchill wrote in 1930. We can e...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c206 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that, compared with the period that Churchill and Attlee lived throu...
William Cash | 473 c206 (Link to this contribution) I would just add that in the Zurich speech Churchill said unequivocally that we should be associated...
Denis MacShane | 473 c206 (Link to this contribution) Let me finish my speech, and then there will be time for everybody else. The hon. Member for Stone,...
Denis MacShane | 473 c205 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman, like all Scottish nationalist Members during these debates since I have been in ...
Denis MacShane | 473 c206-8 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. I have spent 14 years debating these issues—my maiden speech w...
Mark Harper | 473 c208 (Link to this contribution) No one on this side has said that the treaty is identical—
Keith Vaz | 473 c195 (Link to this contribution) Surely the right hon. Gentleman is not against that.
Keith Vaz | 473 c195 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure that that is actually what the treaty says. However, if people are determined to trave...
Lord Lilley | 473 c195 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is making a cogent and coherent argument; such arguments have been rare fro...
Keith Vaz | 473 c194 (Link to this contribution) That is an important point. The Foreign Secretary has probably not been able to convince the tabloid...
Mark Harper | 473 c194 (Link to this contribution) Given the Foreign Secretary's clearly masterful powers of persuasion—we know that it is difficult to...
Keith Vaz | 473 c194-5 (Link to this contribution) That is very helpful. I hope that, if there is a debate, we will have the support of the SNP's spin ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c194 (Link to this contribution) Maybe the right hon. Gentleman gives too much credence to the power of the tabloids. He should think...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 473 c193-4 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to break up the right hon. Gentleman's love-in with his constituency neighbour, the right...
William Cash | 473 c198 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to disappoint the right hon. Gentleman, because I am not about to give a dissertation on ...
Denis MacShane | 473 c198 (Link to this contribution) From the hon. Gentleman's Jesuit education he will recall the tag, ““Pacta sunt servanda””—treaties ...
William Cash | 473 c197-8 (Link to this contribution) I am glad to follow the right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz), because for many years he...
Keith Vaz | 473 c196-7 (Link to this contribution) It was not a failure. It set benchmarks for the first time, so the Eurocrats do not just make decisi...
Keith Vaz | 473 c196 (Link to this contribution) I have huge respect for the hon. Gentleman as a fellow member of the Select Committee on Home Affair...
James Clappison | 473 c196 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is making a sincere and well-argued speech. However, is not the credibility...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c196 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the right hon. Gentleman is saying about respect and leadership, but is he seriously tel...
Michael Connarty | 473 c200 (Link to this contribution) Tillack is the man, yes. He went to the European Court of Justice looking for justice, saying that h...
William Cash | 473 c201 (Link to this contribution) I would be a good deal more impressed if I thought that the Labour party was prepared to keep its pr...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c201 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept that, while some of us perhaps do not have his degree of arrogance, w...
Hugh Bayley | 473 c201 (Link to this contribution) My father and my grandfather gave the best part of their youth fighting in the second world war and ...
William Cash | 473 c198-200 (Link to this contribution) I cannot give way to the right hon. Gentleman again, as other people want to speak. The point is th...
Michael Connarty | 473 c200 (Link to this contribution) I will not take us back to Churchill, but the hon. Gentleman will recall that recently the European ...
Keith Vaz | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) I do not wish to interrupt the hon. Gentleman's peroration, but can he clarify one point? Is he sayi...
William Cash | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) I would certainly encourage that, as I did in relation to the Nice treaty. There was a no vote, but ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman mentioned referendums a moment ago. Is not the reality that only the Irish people...
William Cash | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) I am extremely grateful, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I shall conclude by saying—
William Cash | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) Emphatically so. I campaigned hard against it. I forget how many amendments I tabled, but certainly ...
William Cash | 473 c202 (Link to this contribution) I really do disagree with the hon. Gentleman. It is an important point, and I recognise that many pe...
Speaker | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) This is the Third Reading of a Bill that has very wide ramifications. If the hon. Member for Stone (...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c203 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The hon. Gentleman has had hours and hours over days and da...
Lord Jackson of Peterborough | 473 c202 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is making a passionate, sincere case on behalf of his constituents, as always. He wil...
Speaker | 473 c229 (Link to this contribution) Order. I want to encourage the hon. Gentleman to talk about the Bill. This is a Third Reading debate...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c229-31 (Link to this contribution) I was merely seeking to prove my credentials for voting for Third Reading by showing that I am not a...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c228-9 (Link to this contribution) Indeed—but I found myself observing the way in which the various speakers in the debate reacted to e...
Lord Lilley | 473 c235-8 (Link to this contribution) For me, the key issue raised by the Bill is not Europe, but integrity. I took part in the debates be...
Theresa Villiers | 473 c238 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the main reasons why the treaty is such a significant sh...
David Heathcoat-Amory | 473 c231-5 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman) hardly gave a ringing endorsement of the treaty. He ...
Speaker | 473 c235 (Link to this contribution) Order. There is limited time before the wind-ups, and there are five hon. Members seeking to catch m...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c228 (Link to this contribution) I rise with some trepidation. Many Members here are veterans of this important debate, having been p...
Lord Lilley | 473 c238-9 (Link to this contribution) That is perfectly true. It is one of the areas, but by no means the only one, where we are making fu...
Lord Lilley | 473 c240 (Link to this contribution) It does genetically, when one looks into the matter closely. The continentals often express themsel...
Mark Lazarowicz | 473 c240-2 (Link to this contribution) The closing remarks of the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) illustrate the a...
Mark Francois | 473 c242 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to have the opportunity to sum up for Her Majesty's Opposition on this important Bill. ...
Mark Francois | 473 c242-3 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, but the moral of the story is, ““Be very careful what you say o...
Mark Francois | 473 c243-4 (Link to this contribution) The Minister does not have to take my word for it; he can ask my hon. Friend the Member for Stone, w...
Lord Lilley | 473 c239-40 (Link to this contribution) Very much so, but at least we share that and the money that comes from it. Certainly, we would never...
Michael Connarty | 473 c222-3 (Link to this contribution) For some people, the SNP is the bogeyman, but not for others. The European Court of Justice—that is ...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c223-4 (Link to this contribution) I imagine that at the end of tonight's debate I will probably be on the losing side after going thro...
Michael Connarty | 473 c219-22 (Link to this contribution) I take that point and hope that everyone else will. I believe that any form of xenophobia is a very ...
Michael Connarty | 473 c218-9 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman would have to ask the German police that, and he would also need to ask the...
Angus Robertson | 473 c219 (Link to this contribution) During the 1990s, when I reported for the BBC in central Europe, I remember interviewing an Austrian...
Lord Lilley | 473 c218 (Link to this contribution) Why does the hon. Gentleman think that the head of Germany's police union said that the lifting of b...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c225 (Link to this contribution) Maybe they should. Space would be a good place to send them. Let me consider just two of the so-cal...
Rob Marris | 473 c226 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman read out paragraph 1 of the article. Paragraph 2 says:"““Where a Member State is ...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c226 (Link to this contribution) The other term that the hon. Gentleman ignores is ““measures appropriate””. Had it been simply finan...
Angus Robertson | 473 c226 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful case about fishing. Will he confirm that there are communiti...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c226 (Link to this contribution) I do not mind why the hon. Gentleman votes against the treaty. I know that parts of it find favour w...
Michael Connarty | 473 c225 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes me think of the saying, ““You put a straw man up to knock it down.”” If he ...
Rob Marris | 473 c225 (Link to this contribution) I think that the high representative and so on are significant. They are a great advantage to the UK...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c225-6 (Link to this contribution) Here is the other myth that is being spread around—that all the decisions will be made on a basis of...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c227 (Link to this contribution) I do not really care which party tried to sell that line. It was the wrong line, and one that we hav...
Michael Connarty | 473 c226-7 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman will recall—although he must have been very young then, because he seems very you...
Mark Harper | 473 c208 (Link to this contribution) No, we never have. All we have said, as most European leaders have said, is that it is between 90 an...
James Clappison | 473 c210 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is making a passionate speech, but there has been no scrutiny at all of the...
Mark Lazarowicz | 473 c209 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for pointing out some of the economic successes of Europe. He ...
Denis MacShane | 473 c208-9 (Link to this contribution) I accept that the hon. Gentleman, many other hon. Members and many members of the public believe tha...
Denis MacShane | 473 c210-1 (Link to this contribution) Let me disappoint and reassure my hon. Friend at the same time. No institutional framework can repla...
Speaker | 473 c211 (Link to this contribution) Order. Obviously many hon. Members are still seeking to catch my eye, and speeches so far have been ...
Denis MacShane | 473 c210 (Link to this contribution) I laid out three myths, but if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, this is a fourth one: that someho...
Linda Gilroy | 473 c210 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend also believe that burden sharing, which is one of the concerns of those of...
Richard Shepherd | 473 c211-5 (Link to this contribution) I hope to be brief. I am not trying to get into the ““Luvvies”” column in Private Eye, unlike the ri...
Angus Robertson | 473 c216 (Link to this contribution) For the record, I have stated already that the Scottish National party has welcomed more than 95 per...
Michael Connarty | 473 c215-6 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased that the hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Mr. Shepherd) went into his philosophical...
Michael Connarty | 473 c216 (Link to this contribution) From a sedentary position, my right hon. Friend mentioned the word ““Tory””, although I do not recog...
Michael Connarty | 473 c217 (Link to this contribution) Ah! I see a Member new to this debate. I shall let the hon. Lady read her name on to the record, alt...
Theresa Villiers | 473 c217 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that no one else agrees that the treaty is in fact the constitution, but the...
Michael Connarty | 473 c217 (Link to this contribution) That is probably the weakest argument that I have ever heard. If someone is proud of something that ...
Michael Connarty | 473 c217-8 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not. I have taken on board Mr. Deputy Speaker's caution about other people wanting to spe...
Jim Murphy | 473 c250 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has made his own point, pretty fairly. So there are still 23 unfilled European isola...
William Cash | 473 c254 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. [Interruption.]... I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker. In view of ...
Speaker | 473 c250 (Link to this contribution) I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delay in the Aye Lobby.
Speaker | 473 c254 (Link to this contribution) Order. Allow the hon. Gentleman to make his point of order, as he does not speak that often in the H...
Speaker | 473 c254 (Link to this contribution) We have a fine Mace, and it has no scrap value. It keeps its value.
William Cash | 473 c244 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend on his speech. May I also express the hope that maximum pressure will ...
Jim Murphy | 473 c246 (Link to this contribution) We have had a fascinating debate, not least because of the contributions made by my hon. Friends the...
Mark Francois | 473 c244-6 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for his acknowledgement that our battle here has been effective. I think that...
Jim Murphy | 473 c247 (Link to this contribution) We also heard from the right hon. Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory), who made a passionate spee...
William Cash | 473 c247 (Link to this contribution) My advice to the Minister is, don't hold your breath.
Jim Murphy | 473 c246 (Link to this contribution) I have heard it all before, but not today. The hon. Member for Stone has made a fifth of all interve...
Jim Murphy | 473 c247 (Link to this contribution) I give way to one of Europe's great unreformed institutions.
Jim Murphy | 473 c248 (Link to this contribution) At the minimum, their approach would thrust the European Union back into a period of introspection t...
Rob Marris | 473 c248 (Link to this contribution) I have twice asked the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) what the Conservative party...
Michael Connarty | 473 c249 (Link to this contribution) I was enthralled by my hon. Friend's list of supporters of the Conservative position, but he forgot ...
Jim Murphy | 473 c249 (Link to this contribution) A month of preparation, a month in gestation, a month of research, and that is all that the hon. Gen...
Mark Francois | 473 c249 (Link to this contribution) Can the Minister explain why Mr. Peter Gauweiler of the CSU recently referred the Lisbon treaty to t...
Jim Murphy | 473 c249 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is right—I am quoting myself—but I am quoting from something that I actuall...
Jim Murphy | 473 c249 (Link to this contribution) It is true that the Conservative party is entirely isolated on these big issues. I said on Second Re...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c169-70 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend, who has played a frequent and excellent part in these debates, once again makes his ...
James Clappison | 473 c169 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend mentioned the self-amending treaty. Does he think that it takes a bit of cheek ...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c170 (Link to this contribution) I believe that the Government should have put the case for their own vision of the future of Europe ...
Rob Marris | 473 c170 (Link to this contribution) What evidence can the right hon. Gentleman adduce that a better deal for the United Kingdom than tha...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c170 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Gentleman, who has also played a frequent part.
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 473 c170 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is curious that we were not allowed line-by-line analysis an...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c171 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a valid point. The importance of those issues should have merited substantial d...
Bernard Jenkin | 473 c171 (Link to this contribution) The Government have repeatedly said that unanimity is the rule in matters of defence. However, a clo...
Mark Hendrick | 473 c171 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c172 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has asked that question so often that by now he should know the answer by heart. ...
Mark Hendrick | 473 c172 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman has made it plain that he is unhappy about the way in which the treaty has ...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c172 (Link to this contribution) I can certainly rule out the last part of the hon. Lady's question, which was a most mischievous thi...
Geraldine Smith | 473 c172 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Gentleman not think that the British people have a right to know what his party ...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c176 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way shortly, but I want to take a few moments to recall, if I may, a little of my perso...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c176 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend, and that is a point that I shall elaborate on in a momen...
Graham Stuart | 473 c176 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Lady give way?
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c175-6 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to support the Third Reading of this important Bill, particularly after participating...
Keith Vaz | 473 c176 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the assiduous way in which she has participated in the debate...
Angus Robertson | 473 c172 (Link to this contribution) For the record, will the right hon. Gentleman concede that the first party in this House that called...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c172 (Link to this contribution) I should of course have included the hon. Gentleman, although consideration can be given as to what ...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c176-7 (Link to this contribution) I think the hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that that is not what I was saying. Indeed, I have c...
Mark Harper | 473 c176 (Link to this contribution) How can the right hon. Lady say that wanting to have a good relationship and engage properly with th...
Gerald Howarth | 473 c178 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Lady not accept that the reason why the Conservative party has shifted its posit...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c178 (Link to this contribution) We have heard arguments along those lines from the hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members during thes...
Rob Marris | 473 c178 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that part of the difficulty with the position of many Conservative M...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c178 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend, who has been such an assiduous contributor to these debates, makes a point that is p...
Jim Cunningham | 473 c177 (Link to this contribution) Like my right hon. Friend, I remember that period. What Conservative Members are not telling us is t...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c177 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I want to make a further point about the Conservative party. In...
John Hayes | 473 c177 (Link to this contribution) I am reluctant to interrupt this fascinating journey through the right hon. Lady's CV. Nevertheless,...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c177-8 (Link to this contribution) I strongly support the treaty, in all its aspects. I strongly support the European Union as an organ...
Richard Shepherd | 473 c179 (Link to this contribution) Treaties have a cumulative effect. During the debates on Maastricht, the Government of the time argu...
David Chaytor | 473 c178 (Link to this contribution) Pursuing the point about the Conservatives' reaction, does my right hon. Friend agree that there is ...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c179 (Link to this contribution) I did indeed. I stood for the constituency that is now represented so ably by my right hon. Friend t...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c179 (Link to this contribution) The treaty does not extinguish the great British flame of liberty. With respect, we have heard that ...
David Burrowes | 473 c179 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Lady has given us the history of her journey to becoming a pro-European and taken us ...
Speaker | 473 c180 (Link to this contribution) Order. Perhaps we could now get back to the Third Reading of the Bill.
Lord Lilley | 473 c180 (Link to this contribution) Having revealed the way in which she turned her coat, will the right hon. Lady now show a little res...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c180 (Link to this contribution) My difficulty with the right hon. Gentleman's position is that he and many Conservative Members pers...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Lady has told us that she U-turned on her position of 25 years. Has she U-turned on h...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c180 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The point I am seeking to make is that the argument tha...
Mark Hendrick | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) Does not my right hon. Friend's point about the Conservatives leaving the EPP in 2009 show why the r...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) That issue was dealt with fully in our debate last week. Although I supported a referendum on the co...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. The right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks, who speaks for the Conservative ...
William Cash | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) In her perambulation through the U-turns of the Labour party, would the right hon. Lady be kind enou...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is wrong; I did not say that. I said that I had supported a refe...
William Cash | 473 c181 (Link to this contribution) We got more than 500,000 signatures on the petition for a Maastricht referendum. A great deal of the...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c182 (Link to this contribution) That is a pretty desperate argument, given that for months on end Telegraph Group newspapers have mi...
David Chaytor | 473 c182 (Link to this contribution) Is not the real issue the fact that after 12 days of debate on the treaty, the official Opposition h...
Ed Davey | 473 c184 (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman voted against our proposal to debate and vote on a referend...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c183 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid that my right hon. Friend is quite right about that, but he will also remember that I wa...
Denis MacShane | 473 c183 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. Does she recall that in the closing part of Mrs. Thatcher's G...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 473 c184 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman is so sure of his case, why did he run from giving the people a referendum?
Ed Davey | 473 c183-4 (Link to this contribution) I agree with much of the substance of what the right hon. Member for Leicester, West (Ms Hewitt) has...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c183 (Link to this contribution) I give way to a very close friend and an excellent former Minister for Europe.
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c182 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As I listened to the concluding remarks of the right hon. Member...
Michael Connarty | 473 c242 (Link to this contribution) The quotation that the hon. Gentleman is always using came at the end of a long contribution about t...
Denis MacShane | 473 c249 (Link to this contribution) Can my hon. Friend confirm that the Governments of Germany, France, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands,...
Jim Murphy | 473 c248 (Link to this contribution) I have only a few minutes left and will not go into that. The hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c173-5 (Link to this contribution) I honestly cannot remember who called for one first, but I shall happily bracket the hon. Gentleman ...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c179 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right and psychologists would doubtless have an interesting time analysing the rea...
David Heathcoat-Amory | 473 c186 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that the European Parliament is the democratic lever for Europe, and the Eur...
Denis MacShane | 473 c189 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that all those words are in very small print, whereas the picture of...
Ed Davey | 473 c190 (Link to this contribution) I want to talk about what we will do following ratification and the process of this Bill. I am conce...
Denis MacShane | 473 c209-10 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. As a rough rule of thumb, the nightmares predicted about Britain's engageme...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c183 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Like him, I strongly welcome the specific reference to ...
Bernard Jenkin | 473 c162 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
David Miliband | 473 c153 (Link to this contribution) In the spirit of good cheer, I do not want to insult the shadow Foreign Secretary, but I assure my h...
Keith Vaz | 473 c194 (Link to this contribution) I did not say that to the electors. What was proposed then was a referendum on the constitution. Wha...
Keith Vaz | 473 c196 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. In 1997, this country was on the fringes of Europe. We were not even consulted on issues...
William Cash | 473 c202 (Link to this contribution) I agree with that 100 per cent. It is a very important point, which we have to re-emphasise. The rea...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c166 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman says that the nation needs to know. I am saying that a referendum should be...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c170-1 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. The six words on climate change, which involved no new proced...
David Miliband | 473 c157 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that à la carte is the right approach when it comes to the single market, for example...
Rob Marris | 473 c157 (Link to this contribution) Before my right hon. Friend moves off criminal matters, may I remind him of article 82, paragraph 2 ...
Ed Davey | 473 c191 (Link to this contribution) I agree absolutely. We have had debates about a referendum, but let us imagine what would happen if ...
Patricia Hewitt | 473 c193 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that over the years, we have learned not to believe most of what we ...
William Cash | 473 c200-1 (Link to this contribution) That is a very interesting point. I do not want to spend the whole debate on this issue, but it is a...
Sammy Wilson | 473 c225 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman can use whatever name he wants for the Foreign Minister, the president and the di...
Lord Hague of Richmond | 473 c171-2 (Link to this contribution) Let me finish another point, or else nobody else will ever get into this debate. I hope, too, that ...
Barry Sheerman | 473 c182 (Link to this contribution) Is my right hon. Friend aware of how many letters I, as Chairman of the Children, Schools and Famili...
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