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Employment Bill [HL]

I apologise for missing 10 minutes of the debate when I had to leave the Room. However, the noble Lord now asks the key question. He and I have known one another in and out of court since 1979. He will know that the objective of the Bill, the Government and the TUC is to implement the judgment of the court at Strasbourg in the ASLEF case. I hesitate to read too much of it. I suspect that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, will read some of it and, if he does, I will be happy to read any part which he does not—especially paragraphs 37 to 40. If the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway, agrees that we must bring our law into conformity with the judgment of the court at Strasbourg, especially in regard to paragraphs 37 to 44, that is surely the point before us as legislators. I hasten to add that the Government would be wise to relax their stern approach to that implementation, but that is another issue which I suspect does not arise from the noble Lord’s amendment.