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Governance of Britain

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for repeating the Statement, which is very welcome, not least because the British constitution has been so successful over the years because we adjust it to changing needs; that is one of its great strengths. First, on intergovernmental organisations and treaties, the difficulty will be—as I am sure the Government are aware—that you cannot amend a treaty on the Floor of either House once it has been signed, so the process whereby we do that is very important. There are other dangers, as we discovered over a recent extradition treaty when the United States could not fulfil its part of the bargain because it could not get what the President had approved through either the Congress or the Senate—I cannot remember which. That is another area where we have to be very careful. On demonstrations, I readily acknowledge that the serious crime approach was the wrong approach. There is a point that has never been made as fully as it should have been on this issue. The Speaker of the House of Commons declares in each Session that exits and entrances to Parliament must be kept clear by the Metropolitan Police because of the recognition of the danger to democracy if people prevent their elected representatives getting into Parliament. That part of the equation has not received the publicity that it deserves. Finally, on the appointment of judges, it is not just politicisation that is the danger of examination in public, although I am not totally opposed to that. The other danger—which has happened to some considerable degree in politics—is that people cease to put themselves forward for such posts if they believe that their private lives will be crawled over in a way that would be unacceptable for them, their families, friends and relatives. We have to be aware that it is not just a politicisation issue; it is about the publication of the detail of people’s lives when they go into public positions of this type.