Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, briefly, I have some sympathy for what is behind this amendment. Like the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, I do not like the growth in the use of slogans on the ballot paper. As he said, since Committee we have seen them used a great deal in the European elections. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, took us through the ballot paper for the north-west—the one on which I would have put my cross—and speculated whether the expression "liberal democrat" could be seen as a slogan. As someone who came from the old Liberal Party and often feels that there is not much liberalism left among the Liberal Democrats, perhaps he is right that it is a slogan—but then, looking at some of the other slogans, I imagine the poor berated Prime Minister might have rather resented the fact that the BNP took to paraphrasing his line "British jobs for British people" by adding its slogan "Protecting British jobs". It might have been preferable if we did not have such slogans on the ballot paper, and I will be interested to hear what the Government have to say in response to the noble Lord, Lord Tyler.