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Business Rate Supplements Bill

The right hon. Gentleman is characteristically perceptive and well informed, and he is right. I am sorry if I am being less combative than I sometimes am—I thought that I was being reasonably vigorous—but the reason we regard Lords amendment 11 as so important is because of a desire to prevent a great injustice and because the feeling is so strong. The Government's deafness is such that it makes those on the Guardian Council in Tehran look like flexible and open-minded people. People are shouting and hollering to try to bring an injustice to the Government's attention, and the Government just say, "Sorry, nothing to do with us." At the end of the day, that is just unfair. That is why it is right that Lords amendment 11 should be maintained. It is also why the amendment was passed in the other place not by a small margin, but by a majority of 60. In terms of votes in the other place, that is a very significant margin indeed. It is interesting that the record of proceedings and votes in the other place shows that a number of Labour peers who supported other aspects of the Bill felt unable to vote in the Lobby against Lords amendment 11. They knew that justice was on the side of the amendment. I wish that that message would get through to the Government down here.