European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

My Lords, I have nothing of substance to add to the speeches by the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington, and the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, who have made a compelling argument to delete the date from the Bill. Having the date in the Bill was really a very silly move by the Government. It was not in the Bill to start with for very good reasons. It gave flexibility to Ministers to determine what it should be. They put it in only under pressure from part of the Tory Party; they only then amended it and made it more complicated under pressure from other bits of the Tory Party. The original position of having flexibility in the Bill made eminent sense, was preferable to what we have now, and we should revert to the original position.