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EU Constitutional Treaty

My Lords, we are almost out of time, so I will not go back over all the conclusions, but I will thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate in what I think, despite our differences, has been a very honest and heartfelt way from everyone in the spirit of this House. I think that we agree at least on one thing, which is that this is an issue that it is important to debate and on which more debate of this kind is needed in the future. Although in my speech I may not have convinced the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, that I had buried the constitution, I suspect that we buried it fairly well today with faint praise. I was interested to hear the noble Lord, Lord Dykes, describe it as tedious and pompous. As we have heard, the Prime Minister now confesses that it was a mistake to put political objectives in front of real concerns. There is a need to know how we are going to move forward, how Europe intends to move forward and how the UK intends to respond to that. Broadly, four options were discussed around the Chamber. Some people said that the constitution is now dead and buried and that we should forget it and move on. Some said that there is so much in it that could and should be implemented and that the EU should find ways of doing that on a piecemeal basis. Some, like Chancellor Merkel, whom I quoted, think that we need a constitution and that some form of constitution should be put back on table. And some, like me, fear that, whatever we decide, the EU will carry on implementing much of the constitution regardless through the existing treaty base, and that our only choice if we do not want to be part of that is now to opt out. The one thing that I am not clear about at the end of the debate, despite the Minister’s speech—and I am grateful to him for addressing my questions—is what the Government’s position is, other than that it is not yet time to answer those questions. We will wait to hear, but sooner or later we will need to know what the Government’s position is and sooner or later the British people will need to be given a choice and the British people will need to be given a voice. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the Motion for Papers. Motion for Papers, by leave, withdrawn.