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European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I know that noble Lords do not like it, but the real duplicity is by a Conservative Party that longs to wound and fears to strike. I can tell it now that this party and this Bench are not going to fall into any elephant traps set by the Conservative Party. So work it out from that; we will make our judgments on that—and by God you are making a case for the abolition of the hereditaries. The noble Lord, Lord Howell, mentioned Jean Monnet. I had the honour of working with Jean Monnet 30 years ago on a committee called the Committee for the United States of Europe. I remember going to the Hyde Park Hotel to see him. I said, ““So Monsieur Monnet, what was it that motivated you in putting forward this dream of Europe?”” I remember him looking out of the windows over Hyde Park and saying, ““I wanted to create something that would make it impossible for Germany or France ever to go to war again””. In that respect, that Europe of atonement has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and we should be proud of it. I got into parenting rather late in life—I have three teenage children—and I am well aware that that Europe of atonement is now part of history for them. If I am going to win the argument for Europe in the 21st century, I have to make 21st-century arguments, which are not going to be narrow arguments about treaties on the constitution, line-by-line. They will be arguments about where we want to go within that Europe. As the Lord President said today and as President Sarkozy said with great eloquence last week, that Europe must address the major issues of our day, whether it is energy security, climate change, immigration, organised crime, our relations with our near neighbours or our policy on the major issues of poverty and instability in the world.