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Pensions Bill

May I say what a brilliant speech my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) made? That is not to say that he has not made brilliant speeches before. He managed to pull together a great many amendments in one speech. He said at the start of his remarks that he felt as though he were going to a scrap yard, getting several pieces of a car and putting them back together. In north London, that is called a cut-and-shut. I will deal with the cut, if that is okay. My hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Rowen), the Liberal spokesman, talked about levelling down. It is imperative that that does not take place. If the Bill is to introduce new people to pensions that will get them off means-tested benefits, it is crucial that we have a level playing field. Now that we are talking about levels, it sounds as though we have moved from the car breaker's yard to a building site. As I say, a level playing field is crucial. We must give no one an opportunity to cut their responsibilities and make people who are already in pension schemes slip backwards, or to encourage those people to move into the personal account schemes that we are talking about. That is imperative; if we do not ensure that, it will defeat the whole object of the Bill and we will go backwards, not forwards.