Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

My Lords, I regret that the former Chief Whip is not sitting next to me because he would give me the document here and now showing the extent to which opposition to Labour measures in the Upper House occurs now and the contrasting exceedingly lower levels of opposition during the previous Conservative Administration over the 18 years that they were in power. The noble Earl is a very good historian and, if he is fair, he will not challenge those statistics. But enough of this banter; we are, after all, here to discuss immediate and serious issues. This issue before us in the amendment is a serious one. It derives also from the serious report of the Delegated Powers Committee, which, as I said earlier today, the Government respect fully. We discussed the issues with some members of that committee. Earlier this afternoon—I nearly said this morning, but it was earlier this afternoon—the House recognised that the Government had made considerable movement. I tabled amendments that showed we had accepted certain parts of the committee’s report. However, I hope that the House will appreciate why we cannot accept this amendment. We are dealing with an emergency position. As I sought to emphasise this morning, the emergency position is different even from that of Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce involved the expenditure of a considerable sum of public money to buy out the company. We should not pretend that the situation at Rolls-Royce was trivial. Although it involved a one-clause Bill, it was a mightily significant asset. But we are dealing here with confidence in the financial institutions of this country and with confidence, potentially, in one institution. The issue is all about—