§ Lords amendment: No. 66, in page 61, column 3, leave out lines 11 to 15 and insert "Section 8".
§ Mr. LawsonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
It is fair to say that no new points of principle arise from the amendment. The House will be aware that this is the last of the many debates that we have had during the long passage of this historic Bill. We have had a full discussion of all the important issues and I am grateful to all those who have assisted the Bill's successful journey on to the statute book.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesI wish to reciprocate. The Secretary of State said "no new points of principle arise". If everyone has learnt and forgotten as much as I have in the past six weeks, we have all done a good job. It has been a happy Bill. The Government have achieved their aims. We have not, but that is the nature of things. The Bill is a better Bill at the end of the day for technical reasons and because the Government have generously realised that they had missed a few points. I wished that I had picked on some of the points in Committee but I shall live with that for the rest of my life.
§ Mr. Gordon WilsonSince the right hon. Member for Greenock and Port Glasgow (Dr. Mabon) asked me to watch his back in the event of his absence this evening and as he did the same for me when I was occasionally absent from Committee, it would be appropriate for those representing the smaller parties to accept the plaudits of the Secretary of State. In so doing we would have to make it clear that in no way would we have wished to facilitate the passage of the Bill which we consider to be utterly diabolical rather than historic.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Lords amendment No. 67 agreed to.