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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I was only going to try to help my noble friend Lord Strathclyde because I thought that he and the noble Lord, Lord McNally, might like to know why we do not want the clauses. The answer is that there is not enough time. You cannot alter the constitution in a wash-up rather like doing the washing up in the sink. You are changing the constitution. With the greatest of respect to him, the noble Lord, Lord McNally, does not seem to understand that if you alter this, you will alter the whole philosophy of the House of Lords. People in the House of Lords will become elected and people in the House of Commons will hate a second elected Chamber. We have to decide that slowly and carefully, not in the three minutes of a wash-up. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord McNally, who, after all, is an enormously intelligent person, will be able to see that.