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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I very well remember the access to the countryside Bill, because I was sitting where the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, is now, doing the Front Bench job for the Opposition. I did not know enough about the House in those days to know how it worked, but we sat until we had breakfast at 6.30 in shifts; we then went on until 11.00 before we rose. I had some of the most hostile opponents—they were the Government—but I was facing the government party, and I do not get frightened or nervous easily, but when I stood up there and got the baying and the shouting and the real unpleasantness from the Government, frankly tonight is the first time I felt I was in the House of Commons.