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Banking Bill

My Lords, following a most comprehensive reply to all the points that have been raised, may I invite the noble Lord to return to one very crucial matter before he sits down? While I accept that retrospectivity is indeed an evil, I also accept that there are almost unique situations where it might be a necessary evil. Whereas ministerial order legislation can be utterly despotic, there are circumstances which make it exceptional and necessary. However, I return to the point made by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris, concerning the adjective ““desirable””. The fundamental flaw in relation to that is double. On the one hand, it is extremely wide. That, of course, is why it does not appear in legislation. It is fatally flawed because of its almost illimitable width. Secondly, it is fatally flawed because it is either a subjective test or a test that straddles the line between subjectivity and objectivity. ““That which is necessary”” is clearly an objective test. If one wanted to change a situation to a limited degree, one could add ““that which is reasonably necessary””.