Northern Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time)

I will not speak for long, but I want to make a couple of what I hope will be reasonably cogent and important points. This is not tremendously controversial legislation; it is necessary legislation, and I support it, and if I am fortunate enough to be called to speak in the substantive debate, I will explain why I support it briefly and, I hope, fairly persuasively. There is a difference between haste and indecent haste, however. There is a case, which the Secretary of State has made, for passing this Bill reasonably quickly, but I stress the word "reasonably" as there is no need for it to be rushed through this House this afternoon. This is a further example of the Government’s disdain for the House of Commons. The Secretary of State has a good record on that issue, but his Government have a bad one. Time and again, timetables have not given adequate time to discuss measures, and today we have another example. We are constrained even as we speak in this debate, because we have four hours for the whole of the proceedings up to the conclusion of the Second Reading debate, including the time we are taking now, which is why my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr. Paterson) appealed to us not to vote. I understand the logic of that appeal, but it is very wrong that the business motion debate is eating into the time for Second Reading. We ought to have a period of, perhaps, an hour for this debate—it does not need to be a long time—and then we should have time for Second Reading on top of that. We then have two hours for the remaining stages. There is absolutely no indication in the amendments on today’s Order Paper of any desire by anyone of any party in Northern Ireland or anywhere else to filibuster. There are some amendments that deserve consideration, but there will not be enough time to debate them properly, and that is wrong. I have a high regard for the Secretary of State, and I know he does not mean to insult either the House or the people of Northern Ireland, but the way in which this is being railroaded through does, in fact, insult them. It does not give us in this House time for adequate debate, and it does not say to the people of Northern Ireland, who will be following our deliberations with considerable interest, that we have scrutinised this very important measure adequately and properly.