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House of Commons (Participation) Bill

I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for North Dorset (Mr. Walter) on bringing forward the principles for discussion. It is right that those issues should be discussed. When the hon. Gentleman introduced the Bill with a press release—my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping) suggested that it was under the banner of the Campaign for an English Parliament—he said that it was a solution to the West Lothian question. That claim strikes me as being like those mathematicians who claim to have found a solution to Fermat’s last theorem. On detailed examination, it turns out that it is not a solution, the prize money goes unclaimed, and the debate continues. Just as it is right that fellow mathematicians continue to seek to solve Fermat’s last theorem, it is right that—whatever the wider principles—the Bill is considered in some detail. Were the general sentiments simply to be agreed, and the Bill were to receive a Second Reading without being considered in detail, we would—as has been suggested before in this debate—be saddled with a monster. It would make debates in this House unworkable. For instance, it would make your job, Mr. Deputy Speaker, almost impossible as far as the proper conduct of debates was concerned. It would require an almost continuous process of serving notices about who was eligible to speak in what debate. As we have also heard, because Bills can change in nature in their passage through the House, certain Members could be deemed able to speak and vote on a Bill at one stage, but not at others. It could also be argued that a Bill might have turned out differently if Members who became able to speak and vote on it at a later stage had been able to participate earlier. That would be a minefield especially when it came to interpretation or revision of the Bill.