Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I want to speak on this amendment, because I think it is an important issue. The reality is that we were in Committee prior to the last round of elections. It seems to me that this is an escalating level of abuse: if we allow it to develop in one particular area, then someone else will say, "Well, if they can do it, we can do it", and more and more candidates are going to adopt this approach in the future. We learn from this last election, which, as I said, took place after we were in Committee. I would have thought that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, as a former Presiding Officer in the Scottish Parliament, would have had particular experience of this, as I presume that candidates in Scotland have made representations to him that have led to him tabling this amendment. Irrespective of what is in the Minister’s brief, which may well have been written prior to these most recent elections and the experience of candidates in various parts of the country of being confronted with a ballot paper riddled with slogans—many areas had a very long ballot paper of some 15 to 18 inches long: the longest one I have ever seen in my life—I would have thought that my noble friend might want to indicate a little flexibility during the course of his response. At the least he might indicate that the Government are now considering these issues so that in the future we may consider further legislation in this area.