Tim, technically yesterday’s amendment was on the sitting of the European Scrutiny Committee and not the Lisbon Treaty, although they are necessarily bound. However, my last piece was probably a bit unfair on the Conservatives – it is obvious, Labour aren’t turning up to the debates either. The debate itself is something of a farce, which must disappoint those Conservatives who thought it would receive proper attention. Labour MPs weren’t sitting because they have simply have no interest in facing the issues which will greatly impact on the future of this country.
Since I was doing a work out at the gym when this happened, I have now managed to scan the transcripts. From what I can see, the passing of this “Tory amendment” is not strictly on the Lisbon Treaty and in my view, isn’t a Conservative matter – it is on the all-party parliamentary European Scrutiny Committee. When Bill Cash tried to, quite rightly, relate the Government's overriding of the Committee to the Lisbon Treaty proceedings, he is simply cut down with the claim “we are addressing a separate matter this afternoon.”
What was the point in the European Scrutiny Committee scrutinising and producing endless reports on damaging legislation – and indeed the 2007 IGC proceedings leading to the Lisbon Treaty – if the Government simply overrides their conclusions at every given turn? And as Tim said, the Committee will now sit in public – but is that a good thing? I don’t know. The problem is that it could cause them all to clam up. Then there will be no real scrutiny in Parliament and the process of real scrutiny and scepticism over European legislation will be driven further underground.
Perhaps they should have debated the importance of the November 1998 scrutiny resolution of the Committee which should have compelled the Government to not sign the Lisbon Treaty because the IGC document was still held under parliamentary scrutiny. Alas, that was sidelined. ... That is my most pessimistic analysis of the amendment ... Perhaps too pessimistic for a Friday.
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