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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his intervention because he sets the context for the argument that I am making. I am not making a legalistic argument. As he knows, I am well versed in the legal relationship between the devolved Parliament and the United Kingdom Parliament and was close to the process that delivered that settlement for the people of Scotland. I agree entirely with him in a legalistic sense but, if I understand his argument, he is now saying from the Liberal Democrat Benches that the Liberal Democrats’ attitude, or at least his attitude, to the Scottish Parliament is: ““We have known the date of your election for four years, but we want that date. You can move””. If the implication of the noble Lord’s argument is accepted, that will at a stroke in Scotland undermine the only reason that we have heard articulated in this Chamber for why the coalition Government want to have the referendum on the same day as the Scottish Parliament election. If I understand the noble Lord, he is saying, ““We want to do these two votes on the same day to maximise the turnout, but if you are right””—and we have to accept that they are closer to this than we are—““that this will do a disservice to your election, feel free to move your election. Of course, we have known about the date of that election for four years, but the lack of respect that we have for you is such that you can move over and we will take your date, even if we don’t get your turnout””. That is not the argument that this House, this Parliament or, indeed, the coalition Government should be putting before the people of Scotland. The people of Scotland have spoken through their Parliament and said, ““Please do not do this to us. Our electoral system and Parliament are important to us. Do not do this to us””. It seems to me, for all the reasons that have been rehearsed, that they create an argument that is in favour of the objective that the noble Lord wants to achieve. It does not seem to be unreasonable to ask the coalition Government to accede to that request.