Merchant Shipping (Pollution) Bill [Lords]

When the sacred chickens failed to eat their grain and give Appius Claudius Pulcher the omens he desired when commanding the Roman fleet against the Carthaginians, he had them thrown into the sea, proclaiming, ““Let them drink if they will not eat.”” I say that not just to suggest that he might have made a good new Labour Cabinet Minister, but to remind people that discharges of one kind of another go back a long way. The amendments are intended to prevent the use of the wide powers delegated to the Minister by Orders in Council under the Bill to incorporate EU directive 2005/35/EC into British law, or indeed to prevent future Governments from having the ability to incorporate into law by secondary legislation any international treaty that does not enjoy the blessing of the International Maritime Organisation. There are two issues. First, the directive is highly dangerous to our maritime interests. Secondly, the Conservatives, and much of the shipping industry, from the British Chamber of Shipping to the unions, are strongly opposed to the development of regional agreements instead of proper, IMO-approved international ones. I am aware that the Government are themselves suspicious of the directive, and I am sure that I will receive reassurances in a moment from the Minister that the Government have no intention of adopting it. The amendments are intended to ensure, however, that no future Government—we may have a less maritime-friendly Minister in post at some point—can misuse the term ““international agreement”” to apply to an agreement between member states of the EU alone.