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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I shall attempt to filibuster to assist the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik). I followed the argument adduced by the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) and I agree with her absolutely about the way in which Northern Ireland business is dealt with in the House, particularly about how legislation is introduced. There can be no adequate alternative to the House dealing with proper primary legislation, particularly on electoral matters. I certainly join her and other hon. Members who have expressed disquiet about the Order-in-Council procedure. Along with the hon. Lady, I was present at the Committee yesterday, and it is a disgrace that no amendment could be tabled for significant Northern Ireland business. I join her entirely on that matter. I also join her entirely about parity, particularly in electoral matters. A very strong case can be made that Northern Ireland should be dealt with in precisely the same manner as the rest of the United Kingdom, particularly in respect of the franchise. I have the same misgivings as the hon. Lady about referring to provisions that have not yet passed all their stages in Parliament. That makes us a little nervous about including this provision. Again, I join the hon. Lady in saying that anonymous registration has real merits—I shall come to some of those issues in a moment or two—but I am not quite clear why she has moved the amendment by which subsection (1) would be deleted, whereby no provision would be made for anonymous registration. So how would we meet the criteria of parity and be dealt with in the same way as other parts of the United Kingdom? If the hon. Lady had sought to delete subsection (1) and replace it with a substitute, we would probably have been with her all the way, but removing subsection (1) and subsection (2), as she proposed in amendment No. 2, would effectively mean that we had no anonymous registration.