European Union Bill

The noble Lord is of course a gallant Scot and turns a beautiful compliment. However, I have to disagree with many noble Lords on this batch of amendments, despite the eminence of those who have spoken for them, including the noble Lord, Lord Hurd of Westwell, whose work and leadership in politics I have followed all my life. Indeed, I have to disagree with even the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, because I believe I am correct in saying that the Government have answered the Constitution Committee, but the committee has not yet made the Government’s response open to the rest of us. I am standing because I oppose the amendments, which seem to display a lamentable lack of confidence in the British public and their capability to make up their own minds and display their views clearly if they so wish. It is absolutely true that there has been a progressive alienation of the British public from the European Union’s activities. Sadly, that is not unique to the United Kingdom. That is perhaps the tragedy of the European Union. I personally perceive it as a great success. It has brought all nations together in a most wonderful way, involving peace and reconciliation, and it grows ever larger in its mission. None the less, in every member state that I know, the turnout in European elections is dismal. Unless people are forced to, they do not come out to vote for Members of the European Parliament, which is the directly elected portion of the European Union over which the general public can have some control, and they can at least have their own choice on who they wish to elect. However, there is a fundamental reason for that that will not go away, and it is partly why I strongly support the Bill and oppose these amendments. The fundamental reason is that the European Union is by its nature an intergovernmental body and electorates naturally do not relate well to those bodies. It is to the great credit of the European Parliament that consistently it has raised its game. It has gained more authority and more power. However, with an intergovernmental structure, the intergovernmental side also moves ahead as the Parliament goes on, and it can never quite catch up. None the less, the directly elected European Parliament has far greater powers now than it has ever had. Therefore, this is the right moment to try to reconnect the British public with the European Union mission. This is a good Bill because its foundations are based on regaining the trust of the British people and reconnecting them with the European Union. As a former Member of the European Parliament, I have seen the failure of the UK to reconnect the British electorate with the EU. It is miserable for a candidate to watch the results of the count at a European Parliament election. One sees a tiny turnout and it is very sad. However, as I said in my previous speech on the Bill, the key to this lies in our own hands. We have not talked about the European Union in the way that the modern world demands if it is going to pay any attention. Successive Governments have not bothered to connect either House of Parliament with European Union legislation and policies as they have gone through, yet we have always had the authority so to do—that authority has always lain in our hands. If the Bill is going to connect with the British people, it must be positive and optimistic about what any future Government or Parliament might put in front of the British public and try to explain. Therefore, a threshold would be a completely negative mechanism, as would an advisory referendum. If either were adopted, we would be reneging on our responsibilities to the British public by saying: ““You cannot really have a referendum because we do not trust you to put your views forward correctly. We will not allow you to have a referendum, but will just give you something advisory—and if a particular proportion of you does not turn out, we will not take account of your views””. In that case we should not have a European Union Parliament election in the first place, and nor should we have local government elections, with their dismal turnouts. An advisory referendum would further increase the current and long-standing disconnect between the British people and the European Union. It would also heighten the cynicism that the British public have about any political decision in any of our work. That is a sad thing for us all, and it is what we are fighting against. An advisory referendum—which seems a contradiction in terms for a start—would be seen as a fig leaf. A Government and Parliament could ignore the result. Is that something that we could explain honestly to the British people? ““We want you to turn out and tick a box, but we have the authority to ignore what you tell us””. That, surely, would reduce turnouts to almost zero. Any sensible British elector would prefer to go to the pub, watch football, look at something else or do something that interested them more than bothering to tell the Government their opinion, which the Government is then mandated to say no to. It would minimise the importance of the issues, which is hardly a way to reconnect Britain with the European Union. A threshold is similarly negative. These two things would encourage those against a treaty change to discourage people from voting. It would lead to further misinformation of the kind that we are subject to all the time from our rather volatile media, and which we are trying to overcome. We should not forget that a threshold is in fact a no vote; it is not simply a neutral abstention. Therefore, the amendments are hardly what I as a pro-European want to see. They are political amendments that are not in the interests of reconnecting the British people and rebuilding trust. Au fond, I believe that these amendments reflect a fear of referenda, which I cannot share. In today’s world, fierce expressions of the will of sections of our society are part of our modern interconnected world, as is the regular public polling of our opinions. This is more democracy and not less. Are we perhaps afraid because it is a challenge to us as modern politicians? Our comfortable—perhaps too comfortable —world of representative democracy is challenged by referenda just as much as it is by the web-gathered, flash-mob expression of views that has become so commonplace. Is a referendum merely a formalised version of that? I think that it is much more than that, and I want to work to make the case that we can give all sides of the argument in a referendum in a way that even web-based, flash-mob polling cannot achieve. I fully support the Bill and oppose these amendments most fiercely.