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European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am most grateful to the noble Lord for that eloquent exposition of the problem. I must put it to him, in words used by my noble friend Lord Willoughby de Broke in our Maastricht debates, that sovereignty is like virginity: you either have it or you do not. As members of the European Union we do not have it. Our Governments—our Executives—take part in the process which the noble Lord has just extolled. But the people, beyond electing the Governments of the day every five years—this subject has not appeared in general elections for many years—are not involved. The sovereignty of the United Kingdom belongs to the people.