Prevention of Terrorism Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 9:45 pm on 7 March 2005.

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Photo of The Earl of Onslow The Earl of Onslow Conservative 9:45, 7 March 2005

Surely the sunset clause will make it a certainty that what the noble Lord, Lord Desai, has just asked for will happen. In other words, it will be looked at—because if nothing is done, the Act will fall. I am not necessarily tied to the date of 30 November. However, I hope I will get an undertaking—from my Front Bench and the Liberal Democrat Front Bench—that if we pass the sunset clause and the Government chuck it back at us from the Commons, with their majority there, then we insist on that clause. Then, if the Government still insist on chucking it out, they will not get their Bill at all. I sincerely hope that such an undertaking can be given by my noble friend Lord Kingsland and by the Liberal Democrat Front Bench. Otherwise, we will, in effect, have been posturing.

This Bill is so important—just as our liberties are, being so much part of everything around us in this building, which was built because of our liberties. We sit here talking and, as Sir Arthur Bryant said in his history of the Napoleonic Wars, the continental dictatorships could not understand that England made war by gentlemen making speeches at each other in the House of Commons. These liberties are so important—and the Bill goes against the grain of them all. With gritted teeth I am prepared to accept it for six months; with more tightly gritted teeth, for nine months—but not for a moment longer.

I would rather get no Bill at all, but if we are to have one then we must have a solid undertaking from both my noble friends on the Liberal Democrat Benches—I am using the term advisedly—and my special noble friends on the Conservative Benches.