Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

If it was the right question, I could be prepared to accept an answer to it, certainly for my lifetime—that is as much as I can offer, I am afraid. However, that is not something that has ever been on offer. Let us look at, for instance, the progression from 1972 to the Single European Act. I admit that I voted for that Act—I have regretted it since, for a number of essentially practical reasons, not because I did not want to remove a logjam in European commercial affairs, because I agreed with that—but when it was going through I tabled an amendment that said, "Nothing in this Act shall derogate from the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament". As I mentioned in a debate last week, I was refused the opportunity to debate that amendment. However, in the past three or four years, the House authorities and the Speaker have taken a different view. My supremacy or sovereignty of Parliament amendments to three or four Bills have been adopted by my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney. I have tabled and moved them, and many of my hon. Friends have supported me. Furthermore, my right hon. Friend has not only endorsed those amendments, but whipped them and asked me to put in Tellers on behalf of our Front Bench. I regard that as extremely important, particularly with regard to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, because my amendments would have meant the removal of burdens on small businesses, which, if we repatriate sensibly, is the means whereby we will be able to ensure the growth in this country that we desperately need to fill the monstrous gap in the public finances from which we are now suffering, with a net debt, in my judgment and that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) and others, of £3.5 trillion.