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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

When I think of the range of the Bill—sustainable development, policing and justice, criminal damage, registration of electors, children, commitment to the rule of law, powers of the Human Rights Commission, primacy in intelligence gathering, donations to political parties and so on—it is amazing that it is possible to be out of order on any of the subjects that we have covered, but we have even achieved that. I noted the Minister’s praise of his team. He has made some terrible mistakes by not listening more to the sage advice offered to him by Opposition parties. I know from personal experience how wonderful the Northern Ireland Office team is, and no doubt it supports him superbly. I am sure that they agree that the Minister should have taken on some of our amendments, given their fine judgments on these matters. The Minister has shown some signs of listening in the past few hours. If in some small way we have opened his ears to be more inclusive in his politics with regard to Northern Ireland, then the debate on Report and Third Reading will have been worthwhile. The hon. Member for Tewkesbury (Mr. Robertson) highlighted some issues about which he is concerned. I broadly agree with him and share the same concerns, which I do not need to repeat. I remain concerned that there is a weakness in the 50:50:50 process in securing cross-community support, and I am worried that that will once again get in the way in the months ahead. I hope that the Minister will at least take on board and consider our points on that matter. I am also concerned about the census. We have made a mistake by allowing such a preposterously long period in keeping the census up to date. All the good work and the enormous investment of time and money which has been carried out to make sure that we have the most accurate electoral register in the United Kingdom will fade away because of the length of time between electoral censuses. Once again, I hope that the Minister will reflect on that point, and if my rather gloomy prediction turns out to be right, perhaps the Government will revisit the enormously long period between censuses. Finally, I recently saw a fine show in Majorca called, ““Pirates””—I attended to help raise money for Great Ormond Street hospital. As I watched the show, I thought about how this Government plunder the goodwill of Northern Ireland politicians—some of us have covered this particular portfolio for almost a decade. They have stolen money from students by introducing a truly unpopular method of student support, and they have also threatened the Northern Irish people with enormous hikes in their utility bills in order to undo damage which was not caused by the citizens themselves. If the politicians of Northern Ireland use this Bill and other legislation as a spur to restart the Stormont Assembly, then Northern Ireland will not have to endure the injustices which are endlessly meted out to them by the Government as a whole rather than by this particular Minister.