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House of Lords Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Steel, said in his opening speech that it all depends on whether we are going to confine amendments to the four purposes of the Bill. He has now said it again with great emphasis. I think he is wrong. As has been said by many people, if the Bill is put down then amendments can be put to it and they are perfectly justified. If you take the noble Lord’s view, who is going to decide what is within the narrow confines and what is just outside them? I suppose it would be the noble Lord, Lord Steel—but that is a very bad way of conducting a Committee stage.