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Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

I would need to drift away from the subject before us to answer that. My point had to do with how Bills are dealt with in Committee Upstairs—huge amounts of time are spent dragging us through them sentence by sentence rather than principle by principle. If the Opposition dealt with the principles and timed their attacks correctly, they would be more effective. I have always taken that view because of my relationship with a huge number of people in the communications world, in which I have a modest amount of expertise. It is just a starting observation. On a slightly lighter point, I was amused by the attempt made by the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) to create a union between the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) and the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke). Perhaps Opposition Members could not see from their seats, but from here I saw that the union resulted in the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe looking a bit like the blushing bride or—perhaps more appropriately in his case—as though he had had a good night out at Ronnie Scott’s. He was deeply embarrassed by the assertion. The hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) made a perfectly fair point about the rationale behind the themed debates. Given that he and I are not a million miles apart on the substance of the treaty, that point ought to be subject to more serious debate this evening. I looked rather carefully at the themes from the outset, because I wondered what the logic was, and I have identified a rationale. I shall not deal with all the points made, because it is not fair to hon. Members wanting to contribute to this debate—