The Minister seemed completely to dismiss the importance of that. Such rubber-stamping and a negation of democracy is reminiscent only of Stalinist Russia in the 20th century. Government Back Benchers, who seem to think that this is funny, will find that they must justify to their constituents the fact that they have been part of this negation of democracy, by pushing through a Bill that contains important issues that have not been debated. They believe that the world started in year zero in May 1997, which is similar to what the Pol Pot regime insisted on in Cambodia. That is wholly at odds with the proper and sensible consideration of the issues by the Committee.
Friend is right, but it goes further than that.
The Advocate-General for Scotland had no basis for suggesting that because all three Chairmen of the Committee had specifically ruled that at no stage had there been any filibustering. This has undoubtedly been an unsatisfactory matter. As my hon. They were told by their lords and masters that they had to clear the decks in case the Prime Minister wished to call a general election for April, so these wholly artificial timetables were imposed on us. In the brief time that remains, I want to touch on a couple of points that were raised in the debate.