European Union Bill

My Lords, I add briefly to what the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, has said by making a couple of additional points. The first is that in many ways this Bill expresses a lack of confidence in representative democracy, which troubles me quite profoundly. Of course we know that we already have issues surrounding the faith and trust of the electorate in us. For Parliament itself to say that it cannot be fully trusted with issues of such importance when it has made a thoughtful and deliberate decision, when that decision has been subjected to discussion both in this House and in another place, and when constituents have been duly consulted so that all that can be set aside by a referendum that might have had a very small number of participants, is not only risible but is extremely dangerous politics. That is one of the reasons why the argument for 40 per cent is so strong. The second reason is quite straightforward. The threshold of 40 per cent will simply discourage those who want to hold a referendum to suit their own special interests, and nothing wider than that. Rather than spend money on a referendum for which they cannot get a substantial turnout, they will decide not to press the issue. I have spent 10 years of my life working as a professor in the United States and have seen the devastating effect that referenda can have on responsible politics. One pulsing example is the bankruptcy of the incredibly rich state of California because of a series of referenda that have made it impossible for it to raise local taxes of any kind on property. That is one of the reasons why this richest of all states is today bankrupt and cannot afford even to pay for its own state university. There is an argument for referenda, but it must be narrow and it must be related to exceptional cases and, as the Constitution Committee said, to issues of overriding constitutional importance and to nothing else. It was appropriate for the devolution of power to Scotland, it was appropriate for the devolution of power to Wales, but, beyond that, as an instrument—let me put it bluntly—for holding a party together against its own internal divisions, it is not appropriate. I am speaking not just about now but about my own experience as a Minister in Harold Wilson’s Cabinet of the 1970s, when as a last resort the referendum was brought in as a way to enable the Cabinet to escape making a difficult decision. It had its uses, but those uses should not be exploited time and again. The third reason that I put before your Lordships—and I want to put some weight on it—is that, whether we like it or not, there is a considerable difference in the level of public support for the European Union in the different parts of the United Kingdom. Scotland has consistently shown itself to be very much more enthusiastic about the Union than England; Wales is somewhere between the two; Northern Ireland is perhaps the least enthusiastic part of the United Kingdom. But to have a referendum that might be deeply divisive, where one part of the United Kingdom strongly supported the idea that a power be given over to the European Union and another part dug in deeply against it, would be a very dangerous path to go down if one did not have a major majority behind any such decision. That is another good reason why we should not lightly go into a referendum, certainly not without a massive part of the population being behind it. The amendment would discourage foolish referenda. It would stop special interests trying to exploit the referendum as a way to impose their views on the general public. It would be in favour of the unity of the United Kingdom and not inclined to divide it. Finally, and not least important, it would say decisively that to put representative democracy at risk should be done only on the basis of a very substantial part of the United Kingdom’s thoughtful and intelligent electorate.