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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

My Lords, I do not see that anybody has really answered my question; I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, will answer it. What on earth is the point of us expending further time on a Bill that has no obvious purpose? My noble friend Lord Jenkin put his points marvellously well and very clearly, as he always does. Of course, my noble friend Lord Onslow then hammered the nail home with his characteristic force. I do not want to spend time on this, but I want to make one point. I regard this Bill with some welcome because it is a classic example of, and illustrates with unusual clarity, what is meant by the phrase, ““Satan rebuking sin””. In the spectacle of Satan rebuking sin there is an element of hypocrisy. I wonder whether there is not an element of hypocrisy in the Government going ahead with this Bill. What puzzles me is that it may give this licence—these new powers—to Secretaries of State, but I wonder what form of conversion Secretaries of State, who all their lives have been soaked in the tradition of regulation, will need to undergo to be suddenly minded to withdraw them, repeal them, change them, weaken them and amend them. I do not want to say any more, but I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, will bear in mind that today he represents Satan. I am sure that he will do so with some skill.