My Lords, I will start where I started in the previous debate, with the parliamentary TARDIS: the Government say that we can set things back to where they were before. Ministers in the other House and in your Lordships House said that this Bill brings clarity, but it is clear that it does not bring clarity. That is why the Government have insisted on Clause 3.
The elephant in the room, as has been mentioned, is Prorogation, but Prorogation is different from Dissolution. The unlawful Prorogation has had an impact on many people—I still think of it. I agree with the assessment of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, that that was an abuse of power, but I would not extend that in the same way to a Dissolution.
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As we listened to the debate, many noble Lords who are lawyers—the Minister recognised that he and I made the pages of Private Eye for not being lawyers and trying to make sense of the legislation—spoke on the premise that this would never go to the courts anyway and they would not intervene. I can think of no worse situation for the courts to intervene in than the calling of a general election. While one noble Lord called Clause 3 admirable, I cannot go as far as that. The Government may think it necessary; I would say that it is possibly understandable but a neater, more acceptable and more democratic way of dealing with this issue is the amendment that we have just agreed, whereby the House of Commons, the other place, should have a say in whether a general election is called. That would put the matter beyond legal action.
I should say two more things. I am grateful to the Minister because, as he and I know but others who were not in the Committee do not realise, we had a non-lawyerly debate about the meaning of the word “purported”, along with the noble Lord, Lord Norton. I am grateful to the Minister for his letter to me. It seems that the Government are looking for a belt-and-braces approach. On the one hand they say that the legislation is clear, but on the other they make it clear that it is not clear because Clause 3 is there. However, involving the courts rather than the House of Commons is not the right way to proceed. As I have informed the noble Lord, Lord Butler, we would be unable to support his amendment.