Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

In the debate on the Greater London Authority Bill, back in the late 1990s, we debated a regional spatial strategy. I was foolish enough to say that the concept had come to us from Brussels and that some of my colleagues on the Committee would therefore treat it with suspicion. The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Nicholas Winterton, called me sharply to order and said that I was not to bring such a consideration into the debate. I was wholly delighted when Mr Nicholas Rainsford, replying for the Government, said—without actually alluding to myself—that regional spatial strategy was a concept that was being introduced into our affairs from Brussels, whereupon Mr Winterton apologised to me. My noble friend Earl Peel and I had better have a conversation outside the Chamber.