My Lords, I feel provoked to respond, because my noble friend Lord Hamilton of Epsom was kind enough to the Campaign for an Effective Second Chamber, of which he was indeed a valued member and which my noble friend Lord Norton and I founded some 16 years ago. However, after that, I part company with my noble friend. He has read it completely wrong. By implication, he criticises the Clerk of the Parliaments and the advice given to your Lordships on tabling amendments. But what do Members do? They take advice and according to the procedures of this House, advice is given. I speak as one who was a Chairman of Committees for 15 years in the other place. It is not precisely the same advice as would be given in another House but we have behaved entirely according to the rules. One of the fundamental precepts of, and our whole purpose in, the Campaign for an Effective Second Chamber—the members of this group are drawn from all parts of your Lordships’ House, including a number of prominent Members on the Liberal Democrat Benches—is to fight for an effective second Chamber while always acknowledging the primacy of the other place.
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All we have done over the past few tiring weeks—although I cannot claim to have been in the Chamber quite as much as the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, I run him fairly close—is seek, within the rules governing this House, to draw attention to important issues surrounding the Bill, and we have passed a number of amendments. I have not voted for all of them. I voted in the Government Lobby on two or three occasions and abstained on others, as I did this afternoon.
We have all been exercising our freedom and tried to improve the Bill. It is now up to colleagues in the other place, the elected House—which has supreme power—to decide whether to take our advice.
We have exercised our rights and duties. I stress that there may be some who do not accept the result of the referendum. After all, one does not cease to be a Labour person the day after one’s party has been defeated in a general election. One does not cease to be a Conservative the day after one’s party has been defeated in an election. One does not cease to be a leaver, or one does not cease to be a remainer, if one has lost a referendum. However, most of us, the overwhelming majority in your Lordships’ House accept the result—reluctantly and sadly but we accept it—and all we have sought to do is try to improve the terms on which we will leave.
There is no cause for hysteria and no need for my noble friend Lord Hamilton of Epsom to be upset by 160,000 names on a petition, almost all of them, I imagine, drawn from the Europhobes. I take pride in being a Europhile. My identity is English, my nationality is British and my civilisation is European. I wish us to remain on the closest possible terms. I believe passionately in Parliament, in a House in which I sat for 40 years and in this place, its rights, duties and limitations. All we have done is act according to that.