EU Amendment - Lords 2nd reading debate begins

I will be quoting portions as this crucial debate begins. The outcome became clearer when the Liberal Democrats made it clear that they will vote against a referendum amendment - 1st May local elections will be the chance for electors to show their disgust at this latest treachery. I have chosen this section of a speech by Lord Forsyth of Drumlean as an opener to the contemptible actions now underway by our Westminster politicians: The Foreign Secretary was asked in the other place how the Government had responded to a letter from the German presidency, anxious to restart the constitution after its setback when two countries had the temerity to vote against it in referendums. The Government were asked:

“How do you assess ... the proposal made by some Member States to use different terminology without changing the legal substance for example with regard to the title of the treaty”.

He said that he did not know. Perhaps the Leader of the House could tell us how the Government responded. He did not know whether the British Government would be complicit in a monstrous deceit that the distinguished Giscard d’Estaing openly boasts of having been executed:

“In the Treaty of Lisbon the tools are largely the same. Only the order in which they are arranged in the tool-box has been changed. Why this subtle change? Above all, it is to head off any threat of referenda by avoiding any form of constitutional vocabulary”.

What contemptible arrogance; what deceit.

I love this place, this Parliament. I have watched as ill thought-out, so-called reforms have weakened it and as the Executive have ridden roughshod over conventions and failed to show it the respect that it is due, and as power has steadily leached away, often 1 Apr 2008 : Column 897 without accountability, to quangos and regulators, Assemblies and Brussels. As the Government have weakened Parliament, so also have the Government been weakened. What is this House of Lords for? If it has any purpose at all, it must be to stand up for the rights of the people and our democratic system. Now is our moment. I suggest that every Peer, whatever their views on Europe, should consider carefully how they cast their vote on the issue of the referendum. We can prevent this tawdry deceit presented to us on April Fool’s Day and allow the people the say that they were promised. This is our moment. We should seize it and turn the tide against those who hold the people in such contempt and risk everything by doing so.

2.59 pm