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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

My Lords, I am going to limit what I say to Part 5 of the Bill, "The House of Lords", and, of that, only Section 67 which deals with the elected hereditary Peers and their replacement. Having looked at that part of the Bill itself, I then took up the Explanatory Notes to see what justification was given for the breach of one of the most solemn undertakings given by any Government over my 60 years in Parliament. I looked in vain, but that was hardly surprising. Such a justification does not exist. When I first heard from my noble friend the then Leader of the Opposition about what was subsequently, though mistakenly, to be called the Weatherill amendment, I had severe doubts as to whether one should on any terms allow a Bill of such constitutional importance through in a hurry, but I subsequently changed my mind, because it would give at least a handful of hereditary Peers some say in what the shape of the House that they and their confreres had all served should be. In quoting the excerpts from the Second Reading speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine of Lairg, I should like to assure him that I and, I think, my noble friends regard his conduct throughout the passage of that Bill, and ever since, as impeccable. We could only wish that his own party had treated him more recently in the manner that he was entitled to expect. The noble Lord, Lord Steel, is wrong. The deal was a deal in its entirety. To try to pretend otherwise is to deceive himself. He will not deceive others. Let me read those words together with the rest. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine, said: ""The amendment reflects a compromise negotiated between Privy Councillors on Privy Council terms and binding in honour on all those who have come to give it their assent. Like all compromises it does not give complete satisfaction to anyone. That is the nature of compromise".—[Official Report, 30/3/99; col. 207.]"