Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

My Lords, I rise briefly to support my noble friend’s amendment. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Newby, will permit me to make one observation: in so far as he shares our concern about the way in which Parliament is once more being ridden over by the Executive, I cannot help but point out that had his party been a little less reluctant to join in the dance, we might have had an opportunity for more careful scrutiny of the Bill. In this respect, the Government are their own worst enemy. We have seen how this Government have progressively destroyed Cabinet government in our country and marginalised Cabinet Ministers, who discover from the newspapers what policy is. Now we are seeing the same thing happening to Parliament with this kind of roughshod procedure. It results, in the end, in governments making mistakes and in weak government. I am sure that because this House has not had a proper opportunity to scrutinise and consider the legislation and that there will be no proper opportunity to scrutinise the secondary legislation, the sweeping powers that are provided will result in the Government making mistakes that will damage them. It is no part of my brief to try to save the Government from themselves. Unfortunately, the taxpayers and the people of this country will pay the price.