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Chair (Terminology)

I have never considered the argument for a secret ballot to be a craven argument; I have always considered it a rather traditional democratic argument. The real contention now surrounds the amendments on the Back-Bench business committee. The one thing that has been agreed by everyone during this process—even those who were not persuaded by what we said about the House business committee—is that non-ministerial business should be controlled by a Back-Bench business committee. Given the universal agreement on that, why do we not nail it down in the most decisive form possible by saying that we want to do now what needs to be done to ensure that the Committee is in place at the beginning of the next Parliament? I have great regard for the shadow Leader of the House, as he knows, but the problem with his amendment is that it looks like crumbs from the Executive table. All that our amendment is proposing is that we do what is recommended in our report, which is to take, for example, all that crucial, procedural stuff not covered by the right hon. Gentleman's amendment but which enables us to get to the House issues that affect how it is run, and put it into a category of non-ministerial business. We want to give that to a Back-Bench business committee. We want a standing order to nail that down and we want to do it in this Parliament. That is the difference between the two amendments. We have taken some steps in this Parliament that unfortunately have had the effect of weakening the institution. We all now know that the task is to strengthen it. These measures by themselves will not do that; all they do is provide a set of tools that people in the next Parliament, our successors, can use, if they want to, to make this place a more vital institution. That is our job today; it is their job tomorrow.