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Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

I fully endorse the Minister’s sentiment, but I would like to make two points. First, if we wanted to elevate the discussion in this country about the general principles of the treaty, we would make sure as a House that we honoured the promise that we all made at the last election—to have a referendum. However, the Government have for some reason abandoned that promise. I suspect that that has something to do with the fact that they do not really want to have a debate about the substance of the treaty. Secondly, I put it to the Minister that the debates on the Maastricht treaty began with the public being alienated and disengaged from the process in Parliament, but as the treaty was scrutinised in such detail, as the disputes were inevitably covered in the press and on television, and as those disputes were often on matters of very close voting, they began to command public attention and to change public opinion, because in the end the detail of the law matters, as well as the principle. I do not want to go on incessantly but just to make the point that the idea that the Government are doing something kind to the public and to this House by seeking to impose their agenda and control the agenda is complete nonsense. They want the opportunity to control the agenda, they are taking the agenda away from more impartial witnesses such as the Speaker’s Panel and the Clerks so as to determine the order of events, they are unnaturally restricting the debate on the implementation of the treaty, and in the end they are not only strengthening the case for the other place to have extended and protracted debates on all the matters that will inevitably remain undiscussed in this House but strengthening the case for a referendum. It is an irony that the very part of the procedure on day 11 that we hope will allow maximum time for debating the very important question of the referendum is itself being restricted, because the Government do not want discussed the fact that this treaty is almost identical to the constitution. That is the substantive point that the Government are running away from. I ask anybody who disputes that to explain to this House, in the limited time that we have available during these debates—perhaps the Minister can put it in a few words to encourage us to vote for his motion—just what, in a word, is so substantially different in the way that this treaty will operate from the way that the constitution would have operated. I cannot see it; I do not think that anybody can. Yes, we may have different architecture—different pillars, girders and construction—but in the end the building will be the same. Unless the Government can make the case that this treaty will lead to substantially different outcomes than would have arisen from the implementation of the constitution, we will know that their whole position is, frankly, a lie.