---

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I am grateful to my noble friend. Can I take advantage of his experience and perspicacity? Does he think that there is a possibility that the circumstances at which we have arrived, deeply regrettable as they are, are the product of the fact that unusually, in the context of the past decade or so, we have a Government in a position, if they wish to, to employ one-party rule in this House because of a built-in guaranteed majority? Despite that, because of his knowledge of and acquaintance with the Leader of the House, does he agree that this ruthlessness of which he spoke is not entirely the product of the Leader of the House, who understands this place, but the product of those outside this House who do not understand this place but have instructed the Leader of the House to take the attitude that, because they can get 100 per cent by exercise of their overwhelming majority, they must get 100 per cent and nothing less? The absence of room for reasonable compromise arises from that external pressure.