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Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords who have spoken in this short debate and I congratulate them on their powers of endurance over the hours in which we have been involved with the Bill. I congratulate particularly the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, who has substituted for the Opposition’s regular Front-Bench spokesperson, the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, whom we wish well in her recovery. The noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, made his contributions to our debates and enlivened our side of the House from time to time by some rather strident claims. However, I must warn him at this point that the Government who introduced the Freedom of Information Act are not going to be lectured by the Conservative Party on how the Act should be implemented. I greatly enjoyed the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Newby. He said that we had promised a Bill of Rolls-Royce smoothness. In order to pass such a Bill through both Houses of Parliament, you need not only a determined Government but one with a majority of more than 600 in the upper House—which, of course, the Conservatives enjoyed when they nationalised Rolls-Royce in 1971.