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European Union (Amendment) Bill

The noble Lord referred to some of our positions and mentioned William Hague’s involvement with the Bill in the Commons. He and his Front-Bench colleagues have often used the words of Mr Hague’s fascinating amendments for the text of some of their own amendments in this place. But does he agree that William Hague was regarded as a spectacularly incompetent and unsuccessful national leader in the general election campaign, mainly because he invoked the fear of Europe as his main plank—10 days to save the pound—and that he did very badly in that election? Does he also agree that there is an interesting comparison between the absence of his leader in the Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, who was here only on the first occasion, and the presence of the leader of the Labour Party on the government Benches and the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party on the Liberal Democrat Benches? Is there some significance in the absence of the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde? Is it a fear of a William Hague repetition?