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House of Lords Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have listened to the noble Lord, Lord Steel, for some 40-odd years in different assemblies and I have usually done it with admiration and a great deal of respect. Were it not for that fact, I could perhaps be forgiven for feeling, gently around the edges and tentatively, that this Bill was a piece of constitutional mischief-making of the highest and most elegant order. One could go further, but perish the thought: that the whole object of the exercise is to entrench in advance the concept of a heavily nominated House into legislation before the Government have had the opportunity of producing their White Paper. I am fortified in that suggestion by the speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe of Aberavon. We know his position: he is against any form of election to this House. It is not a question of seeing this Bill as a step. As far as he is concerned—and as far as many of the people who support this Bill are concerned, including my noble friend Lord Lea sitting in front of me now, who made the same point—this is the end. It is the end because you have an Appointments Commission that is set up to do one thing—to produce an appointed House.