My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendment 7, which stands in my name, but before doing so I agree with what the noble and learned Lord, Lord McCluskey, just said about wordy legislation and endorse entirely what my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth said in his crisp, succinct introduction of his own two amendments. This is a very unsatisfactory Bill, brought about by extremely unsatisfactory circumstances. If we in your Lordships’ House are going to try to improve a bad Bill—as is for ever our task, and one which was never more needed than in the case of this Bill—we have to address certain very important aspects of it.
I concentrated my amendment on the whole subject of parliamentary sovereignty. Although the Scottish Parliament came about because of the wish of the Scottish people in a referendum, nevertheless it was created by Act of Parliament. If it is to be abolished, that should be done by Act of Parliament, too. I neither forecast nor advocate its abolition but if we are to have such a provision in this Bill—I doubt whether it is needed, and my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth made that position plain in his speech—it should be a parliamentary provision. That is why I suggest that it should be on the basis of a two-thirds majority in a vote of the House of Commons, in which 75% of the Members elected by Scottish constituencies vote for abolition. That provides as strong a parliamentary safeguard as can be envisaged. It is infinitely to be preferred to the referendum route.
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Of course, that does not exclude the possibility of a consultative or confirmatory referendum. I am glad to see my noble friend Lord Norton, who is such a great constitutional expert in these matters, nod at that point. This Parliament in Scotland is the creation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and it is the Parliament of the United Kingdom that should make the decision, with proper safeguards, if the prospect of abolition should ever appear. None of us can foresee
the circumstances in 10, 20 or 30 years’ time, but we can say that we have a parliamentary duty and if this Scotland Bill is to become a Scotland Act, it should be as good and as protective of the Parliament to which we all belong as we can make it. I know that I cannot move my amendment at this stage. I leave my remarks there and hope that the Minister will deal with this subject adequately in his response. If not, I hope your Lordships’ House will come back to it on Report.