Constitutional Reform (Prerogative Powers and Civil Service etc.) Bill [HL]

My Lords, that certainly would have been true of the Home Secretary. The noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, refers to White Papers and so on, and the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, says that what matters is a proper culture, and it is true that rules and principles are no panacea—they simply provide a coherent framework to encourage such a culture. It is better, isn’t it, to have Parliament in the saddle in promoting that framework than a self-interested Executive who will always find wriggle room as far as possible because power is delightful and absolute power is absolutely delightful? I take another example. The Minister referred to prerogative powers in relation to the colonies and Orders in Council. That is the subject matter of a pending case which I am not in, the Chagos islanders case, where an Order in Council has been made. The basis of the case is that the Queen can do no wrong in the colonies. Taken literally, it means that the Queen, acting under an Order in Council under the prerogative, could decide to boil alive some of Her Majesty’s subjects and could do no wrong in the colonies. I say that only because in theory that is the true position under the prerogative unrestrained by Parliament or courts. We will have to see whether the courts, in the case to which I have just referred, accept the Government’s argument, which is that there should be no effective judicial review over the matter. I have tried in my Bill to be rather practical. I have not sought to regulate excessively. I have not sought, for example, to regulate the treaty-making power from signature of treaty but only upon ratification. I have not sought on the war-making powers to say that one must always go to Parliament initially. I have not sought with the Civil Service to lay down an exhaustive and detailed set of rules. I hope very much that if the Bill is given a Second Reading, we will come back to these matters. I believe that the true message that comes through from the guffaw that greeted the Minister when he rose is that we are still in the position of a kind of comedy—““Waiting for Godot”” or maybe ““Waiting for Gordon Brown””. I very much hope that the comedy will soon end and that we will actually get down to the serious business of reform either by a constitutional convention, a committee, a Joint Committee or whatever. I apologise for not doing justice to any of the individual speeches. I would ask the House now if it will give the Bill a Second Reading. On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.