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European Union (Amendment) Bill

I apologise for intervening, but we have a couple of minutes before we break. We on these Benches entirely understand that we are living in a fast-evolving world. That is precisely why we think that things cannot be put down in black and white. What is the noble Lord’s conception of politics, both at the national and European level? I think that I heard him say that he wants to see the distant shore and that, unless he does, one step is too much for him—to misquote the hymn that we both used to sing as boys. The Conservative idea of politics is that it is a messy compromise. I assume that Edmund Burke would have said that international politics is a messier compromise than domestic politics. If that is not the case—if everything has to be sewn up and clarified in black and white—I do not see how we can have a Conservative foreign policy.