---

Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I thank the Minister. I know that in a past incarnation he was at the forefront of constitutional reform within the Labour Party, and I can still see the residues of that wonderful past. Unfortunately, as he hinted today, he will not necessarily be the Northern Ireland spokesman—we have already lost him as a Minister—so we are back to the status quo ante, which is very unsatisfactory. Even though we have all the advantages of having the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, they are not the advantages we had when he was also a Minister in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is already being dumbed down to some extent. In response to the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, I say that I understand that a real political nerd might put the message out that direct rule can be re-imposed because of the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, and me, but I do not believe that that would be a persuasive argument in Northern Ireland at the moment. My point is that, bearing in mind that we might not have the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, looking after Northern Ireland’s interest after 24 November or some date after that, we might have a more obdurate spokesman. He might say that he knows that the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, made these promises, but parliamentary time and so on mean that we have to carry on with the old procedures. The great virtue of this rag-bag Bill is that it is the one opportunity for us to table this amendment. Otherwise, we will have to use a Private Member’s Bill or something like that. That is why I am pushing this matter now. There has been procrastination over many years, so we took this opportunity now. We have not had an opportunity before, and we are not likely to have another opportunity in the next 34 years.