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European Union (Amendment) Bill

Perhaps the fairy story that we need to think about is Little Red Riding Hood and the question that we need to ask ourselves is who is in the bed. Is it grandma or something different? The words that the noble Lord read out are completely irrelevant. He is confusing two things. One is what the European Union will do; the other is the question of its legal personality. As I asked the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, if all this is just clarification and the EU has had this personality before, why is it necessary to have this in the treaty? As the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, asked, where were the Government on this and why did they fight so hard to prevent the creation of this legal personality through the treaty if this is all a fuss about nothing? We come back to what we were told at an earlier stage when we discussed the same document, which then was called the constitution and which at one stage Mr Peter Hain and others argued was simply a tidying-up exercise. So we are back to the argument that this is just a tidying up exercise and nothing of any great import. I very much support my noble friend Lord Howell in tabling the amendments which go to the heart of the issue.