My Lords, I will say one thing. I am very puzzled by the way in which, almost every day in our debates, something happens which reminds us that it is entirely out of kilter with the Government’s generally stated opinions. This Government have generally stated their opinion that they wish to get rid of unnecessary red tape. They are always saying that and yet, every now and again, we have a Bill that seems to have absolutely forgotten that.
We owe a great debt to my noble friend for raising this particular example. It is not the only example—there are a whole lot of examples in the Bill where the Government have suddenly decided that they will do precisely the things that they said they will not do, for very much better purposes, in a whole lot of other areas. For example, we could do with a lot more regulation on environmental matters to get things going, but every time one raises that, one is told, “We don’t want more regulation”. However, in this particular area, regulation appears to be not only implicit, and explicit, but continuous and extensive.
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I just do not understand it. This is a good example of something useful, with which I agree; I am largely in favour of this Bill. To some of those movements that do not like it, I have to say that there are some nasty people around. We need this Bill, because these people are increasingly damaging our electoral system. We should not kid ourselves about this. It will get worse. We have a terrible habit of learning from the Americans. Some in America will do things to our electoral system that they have already done there, which would be terrible. I am entirely in favour of the principle of this Bill, but it is not an excuse for going against all our other principles. One of them should be that we should do this as lightly and sensibly as we can, and without too much trouble.
I particularly dislike the idea of people having to tell the Government that they have not done something. That seems peculiar. I do not care whether it is a government or an agency, but I do not want a society in which I have to tell people what I have not done. I am not terribly keen on a society in which I have to tell people what I have done. But what I find really difficult is the suggestion that I am guilty if I do not tell people that I have not done something that I did not intend to do and have never thought about. That is the problem here. I am keen that Ministers recognise that this important Bill needs to shed the bits that are contrary to the principles of this coalition. As I support it, I want the Bill to not look silly, but there are some bits where it is in grave danger of looking so.
Some of the charities that I and my wife support have difficulties doing the normal things. To add to that their being sent a letter that says that they have not done something that they had not thought about seems unnecessary. I hope that the Minister will take all this seriously.