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Energy Bill

I never thought that I would agree with the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, as much as I just have. We must set our face firmly against commercial protectionism, but where the objective is a political one it must be resisted. Noble Lords may be aware that when we debated these subjects a little over a year ago, the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, was replying for the Government. There were rumours in the press that Gazprom was threatening to bid for Centrica, which includes British Gas, among other things. I am not sure that I got a clear enough answer, but I made it clear to the Government that that would be totally unacceptable. There could be no reciprocity or transparency of any kind; that must be firmly resisted. That is quite different from the proposals of the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam. Mischievously, I ask him what his view was when the Government chose to sell Westinghouse to the Japanese.