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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

No, that is not true. [Interruption.] Yes, it is interesting to hear an argument for consistency from a Scottish nationalist. That is almost as interesting as hearing that argument from a Liberal Democrat. [Interruption.] I note that the hon. Member for Bristol West (Stephen Williams) was already laughing before I said that. The Minister cited me, and claimed that I was going to say all sorts of things. Actually, in Committee in this Chamber I said that"““there is no fixed determined policy that we are completely and utterly in all cases implacably opposed to thresholds. Nor, for that matter, is there a belief that we ardently should have thresholds.””—[Official Report, 2 November 2010; Vol. 517, c. 847.]" My point is that there are times when thresholds might be suitable, and there are times when thresholds will not be suitable. Indeed, the Minister quoted a bit of my speech, but I went on to say that"““I fully understand that there are others who say that because of the way in which the Government are pushing forward with this legislation and because it is an implementing referendum, a threshold would be appropriate.””—[Official Report, 2 November 2010; Vol. 517, c. 849.]"