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Parliamentary Standards Bill

My hon. and learned Friend says, unhesitatingly, yes, and he will know, as we all do, that the Bill threatens to create a vicious circle whereby Members are punished by the courts for representing interests, and punished by our constituents for not representing them—completing the process whereby, increasingly, I am afraid, Members are transformed into box-ticking clones. We are all asked repeatedly, as was mentioned this afternoon, whether we get it—"getting it" is the phrase of the moment. I sometimes wonder whether our constituents get it—whether they get what is coming to them under the Bill, namely, the triumph of the political class, driven by the combination of a rampant media, the professionalisation of politics, a rapacious Executive, and a culture with a 15-second attention span. Why, in the last resort, blame anyone but ourselves if the Bill is allowed to go through with all its imperfections? It is the culmination of a collective loss, over many years, of self-confidence, self-respect and self-belief. If Members of the House do not respect themselves as elected representatives, free to debate the clash of interests that must arise in a free society, no one else will respect them either.