The respect is mutual, may I say. My noble friend—I shall call him that—and I have known each other for a very long time. We have travelled together and talked together on a whole range of issues, and frequently found ourselves in agreement, not least about the fact that his wife is one of the most accomplished harpists in the whole of the United Kingdom.
2.45 pm
I am very critical of the piecemeal approach, as is my noble friend Lord Deben. As I said in an intervention, it is a pity, too, that we are setting artificial deadlines: “This must be decided by Burns Night”, “That must be decided by St David’s Day”, and so on. Thank God that this Parliament will not be in existence on St George’s Day, or goodness knows what we would have promised to achieve by then. It is a great pity that the leaders of our parties are so motivated by targets. Targets have not exactly achieved a great deal for our National Health Service, and they are not going to achieve a great deal for our constitutional progress.
In answer to my noble friend, I say that we are indeed legislating here for Wales, and I am sorry that the approach has been piecemeal. Of course the Bill will go through, but with as few additions as possible, I hope.