European Union (Referendum) Bill

Oh!

It does not. With one or two honourable exceptions, we are unambiguously a pro-European party. Th...

My Lords, 12 months ago, almost to the day, your Lordships kindly and generously paid tribute to ...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, for his bravery in sponsoring the Bill in your Lord...

My Lords, the European Union (Referendum) Bill to which we are invited to give a Second Reading t...

My Lords, I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord, and I will do so very briefly. I am listen...

This is not a time-limited debate, and I have not the slightest intention of replying to that int...

My Lords, the Constitution Committee, of which I am a member, published a brief but important rep...

In 1975, Mrs Thatcher, as she then was, said in her first parliamentary speech as leader of the O...

My Lords, I must begin with a confession. I have changed my attitude to referendums. For the firs...

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, on the thoughtful way in which he introduced...

My Lords, given the need to be brief, I am tempted simply to say that I agree with my noble frien...

My Lords, we have heard some excellent speeches in this debate so far, including, charmingly, fro...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, in his very eloquent speech opening this debate, said that ...

Apart from the obvious unwisdom of this House trying to throw out or talk out a Bill passed overw...

Is the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, whose expertise on this matter is known throughout t...

No. Of course I am not saying any such thing.

Secondly, I understand and sympathise with th...

My Lords, there are many features of the EU and our relationship with it that are beneficial, but...

My Lords, I begin by saying that this Bill is, in my view, otiose. That is, I hope, a polite way ...

My Lords, whatever one’s views on the merits of the Bill—I shall come to those in a moment—I hope...

My Lords, this is an utterly unnecessary, indeed otiose, Bill. It does serious damage to business...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, must be correct that the procedure that should be followe...

My Lords, I was going to start by saying that I thought that there was a lot of common ground bet...

I was out by only one.

In case I test other Members of this House, I will make the simple point about how much it has ch...

My Lords, I am not against referendums in principle. I have long expressed my conviction that in ...

My Lords, I led a debate in your Lordships’ House in October on the importance of our continued m...

My Lords, I support the Bill for two reasons. First, it seeks, finally, after 40 years, to re-est...

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, for introducing this important Bill. ...

I begin by congratulating my noble friend on his sponsorship of this important Bill and by commis...

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Liddle, in his excellent speech on behalf of the Labour Party, rem...

My Lords, your Lordships may have noticed that on the list of speakers this slot is down for the ...

My Lords, I should like briefly to revert to why we need a referendum and why this Bill is thus s...

My Lords, there is much mention of people being told the truth in the European debate. I ask supp...

My Lords, as the House knows, I am a former EU Commissioner and, as such, I look forward to campa...

My Lords, we have had a number of very interesting speeches in the past couple of hours, but the ...

My Lords, the European question was sent to try us. It has succeeded mightily in doing so ever si...

My Lords, I will be brief, because I think that the issue before us is important but simple, and ...

My Lords, the substance of what the noble Lord, Lord Wakeham, said, is surely that this House has...

I did not say that at all. If noble Lords want to vote against it, they can vote against it, but ...

I am not pretending at all; any amendment may well have certain consequences.

I am reminded...

Monsieur Hollande.

I am sorry, Monsieur Hollande. Already, the Prime Minister has given a clear signal to our partne...

My Lords, my personal view is very straightforward: we are inevitably and intricately linked with...

My Lords, I confess from the very first that I am Eurosceptic and always have been. I voted in 19...

My Lords, I am a strong and committed pro-European, and if noble Lords will forgive me, I shall d...

My Lords, it is surely ludicrous that a debate of this significance is limited to just one day an...

My Lords, I support the Bill and look forward to it passing. However, I also look forward to camp...

My Lords, while I cannot congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, on bringing this Bill before us...

I hate to interrupt, and I promise that it will be the last time, if I possibly can, but I did no...

Even picking up from other people and repeating that it is a pestilence and a poison gives a cert...

My Lords, like anyone born after 1958 in this country, I have never had the opportunity to vote i...

My Lords, as one of a very small number of current Members of your Lordships’ House to have been ...

My Lords, I share some of the constitutional distaste for referenda, and I share the dismay of ma...

My Lords, I say at the outset that I am strongly in favour of Britain’s membership of the Europea...

My Lords, I have been a Conservative almost all my adult life, and, during that period, a support...

My Lords, this is an inadequate Bill. However, it is worse than that because it is a grossly prem...

Then sit down.

I will sit down sooner than most of the people who have spoken. Everybody who has taken part in t...

My Lords, I do not intend to spend time today on the intra-party or inter-party shenanigans of th...

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Dobbs in championing this Bill in your Lordships’ House....

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, on picking up this piece of legislation from...

My Lords, I begin with a confession. I have form on this matter as one of those who opposed the M...

My Lords, in the 1975 referendum campaign, I voted and campaigned for yes. I am strongly in favou...

My Lords, this is not so much a declaration of interest as a declaration of pride. I worked with ...

Sir Michael.

Sir Michael Butler; I am so sorry. Sir Robin Butler—the noble Lord, Lord Butler of Brockwell—is s...

My Lords, this has been quite a debate. We have seen Mitterrand reincarnated and the noble Lord, ...

The noble Lord said it was not scrutinised in another place. It may be so. Is that not an additio...

No, because it came to us—and the noble Lord, Lord Richard, ought to know this as a former distin...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, made an excellent speech in introducing this Bill, as he in...

Oh!

Noble Lords opposite may well think that that is an appalling prospect, and they are entitled to ...

My Lords—

No, I am not going to give way. I know perfectly well what the noble Lord is going to say, and I ...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Dobbs for his introduction to the Bill and his explanation...

My Lords, this debate has proved far more interesting than many would have expected. A number of ...

My Lords, I have rather enjoyed myself, which is quite usual in your Lordships’ House. However, w...

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to listen in this House to the autobiographical discourses of t...

My Lords, when speaking at number 59 in the list one can reflect, as one hears all of one’s point...

My Lords, on his introduction of this Bill, I join with others in warmly congratulating my noble ...

My Lords, I shall not detain the House very long but, having listened to virtually all the speech...

My Lords, I have been a supporter of Britain being in Europe ever since I was at Cambridge and I ...

My Lords, I contemplated making a comment on what the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, raised just now bu...

My Lords, I place it on record that those of us who wish to consider this Bill properly are not d...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, made the interesting comment that this issue is not part...

My Lords, I am sure that the whole House will be delighted that we are close to the end of what h...

My Lords, will my noble friend give way?

No, I do not have time to give way.

Oh!

If I may add this, official demographic projections suggest that within a few years’ time, becaus...

My Lords, it has been a long and remarkable Friday, not least perhaps for the extraordinary role ...

Before the noble Lord sits down, could he clarify for the benefit of the House whether Labour is ...

My Lords, I thought that I had collapsed then, let alone sat down. If there is to be such a refer...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, spoke today about Alice in Wonderland and the noble Lord,...

Is the noble Baroness asking us to believe that there is not one single flaw in the Bill? Is the ...

My Lords, my point is that we have heard clearly from neither the Labour Front Bench nor the Libe...

Forgive me; my noble friend cannot have heard me correctly. I sketched out the point that, since ...

I am delighted to hear my noble friend talk about this commitment being in every single manifesto...

My Lords, I congratulate this House on what has been an exceptional day and an exceptional debate...

Hear, hear!

I am reminded of the politician who said, “Always speak with a full bladder to be sure that, even...