Clause 82 - Foreign surveillance operations
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
Good afternoon, Mr. Hurst. I welcome you back to the Chair. We had an interesting debate this morning, as no doubt you will have heard from your co-Chairman, Mr. Benton. It was on the biggest issue so far between the two sides of the Committee. Given that we are still discussing clause 82, I thought that the Minister, slightly uncharacteristically, was a little churlish. I know that she has to behave in such a way on instructions, but it is not typical of her. I should have thought that the Government had had enough constitutional crises for one week, given the botched reshuffle and what I thought was an appalling music hall turn by the Prime Minister yesterday, when he did not take the dignity of Parliament at all seriously.
I am sure that, on reflection, the Minister will concentrate on the more genteel and gentle part of her speech when she offered to look at the matter, and that we shall return to the usual courtesies between the two sides of the Committee. They were perhaps better represented by the information of the hon. Member for Greenock and Inverclyde (David Cairns), who had an interesting and serious point to make, than by other members of the Committee on the Government's side.