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European Commission

The hon. Gentleman is accurate in what he says, but he does not mention that those Conservative peers are not members of the Front-Bench team. The Liberal Democrat peers who voted in the House of Lords in the opposite direction to how his party voted in the House of Commons included his party's official spokesmen, who sit with him and his party leader in their Front-Bench meetings and are supposed to be collectively responsible for shaping Liberal Democrat policy. That is the difference between his party and mine on this issue. Whatever view we take on Lisbon, the principle that this document misses is that if Europe's political leaders continue to deny the peoples of Europe their say, they should not be surprised if the public look on what is happening in Europe with a mixture of apathy and cynicism. That is not healthy for this country or for the European Union as a whole. If we are to build the sort of European co-operation that will be in the interests of the people of every member state, the way forward is to have greater openness and genuine engagement with the public.