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Treaty of Lisbon (No. 4)

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, North (Mr. Henderson). I do not agree with everything he said, but he is extremely well informed about this subject. It is also a pleasure to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), with whom I am in complete agreement on these matters. It has been a strange debate because, as the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, North illustrated and implied, we have had a general debate about the single market and its history, rather than line-by-line consideration of the changes that the Bill makes, which is what we were promised. There is another reason why this debate has been strange. Perhaps we should rename it the Lady Thatcher debate, because her achievements in introducing the Single European Act and the single market have been lauded throughout the House. There is now a consensus. Thinking back, I cannot remember Lady Thatcher being decked with garlands of praise by the then Opposition. Labour and Liberal Democrat Members might be provocative in the debate, but I have quotes of what they said at the time. I will not use them because I do not want to disturb—[Hon. Members: ““Go on!””] A good précis would be that she got it all wrong and that Britain was isolated in Europe. Suffice it to say that I would rather have Mrs. Thatcher negotiating for me on the rebate when she is isolated, than certain other leaders with plenty of allies. The hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) is right when he says that the single market has been at the heart of public perception of the European Union in the UK. As he rightly reminded us, that goes back to the referendum of 1975, when being part of the trade bloc was the first of the three main reasons that the Government of the day gave for saying yes. The other two reasons were a guarantee of secure supplies of food and getting more European Community money spent in Britain. In view of the subsequent history of the common agricultural policy—about the only European matter with which the Liberal Democrats would now disagree—and the tangled history of the UK contribution to the budget, perhaps it is best to draw a veil over both those issues. To the credit of the Government of 1975—a Government who had some impressive and significant figures, and some very good parliamentarians—they were clearly worried about the impact of the European Union on this House. A large section of the explanatory document that they issued was entitled, ““Will Parliament lose its power?”” The electorate of the day were told:"““It is the Council of Ministers and not the Market's officials who take the important decisions. These decisions can be taken only if all the members of the Council agree.””" That solemn safeguard has long since fallen by the wayside.