My Lords, it is always a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness. I frequently do not agree with her; today, I most certainly do and I think, to use the words of the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, this is one that we take to the wire, because this is completely unacceptable in a Bill of this nature. In no circumstances could I possibly condone the Bill if it goes forward with these clauses in it.
As I was listening this afternoon to some excellent speeches, I thought of those famous words of Acton: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I am afraid we are in danger of our Government being corrupted. I use those words deliberately and slowly, but it is a real risk, because the arrogance that we see from this Government—my noble friend Lord Hailsham referred to this—is something that, in my 52 years in Parliament, I have not seen before. Coupled with it is a disinclination to disagree agreeably, and in a democracy it is very important to be able to do that.
For a Government to take these powers to themselves is something up with which we should not put. I referred to this in previous debates, at Second Reading and in Committee. We have here a potential seizure of power that, as my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham said, we would not have countenanced from the Labour Government, with their massive majority, 22 years ago, when he and I—he was leading—were dealing from the Front Bench with the Bill that established the Electoral Commission.
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Of course, there are things wrong with the Electoral Commission. If they are so very wrong, if would not have been a dishonest thing to say that we will abolish it. I would not have favoured that, but to say that we will subvert it—that we will place ourselves in a position where we can undermine it—is an arrogance that defies belief. We just cannot have this in a Parliament, and the trouble is that if a sea change happens, it tends to stay.
One of the reasons why your Lordships’ House has such an excessive legislative burden on its shoulders is that in 1998, the then Labour Government—I was talking to the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, about this this morning —provoked by some Conservatives who kept Labour up late night after late night, decided that every Bill would be timetabled. When the Conservative spokesman said, “We, of course, will reverse this”, we all thought that that was absolutely right. And when Conservatives came into government, did they? No, because it was convenient for government. But the result of that convenience for government has created a situation where legislation is not scrutinised in the other place, hence the excessive workload in your Lordships’ House.
We should beware of going down slippery slopes. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, has performed a signal service in putting down these two amendments. I believe it is our duty, it is incumbent upon us, to curb
that arrogance of power and to make sure that these clauses are deleted from the Bill, or that the Bill—for all that it contains some things that are entirely acceptable —falls. That is the ultimatum we must place before the Government, and I hope they will see sense.