European Union Referendum (Date of Referendum etc.) Regulations 2016

Debate between Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon and Lord Howard of Lympne

Wednesday 2nd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howard of Lympne]

I am talking about the way in which our country is governed and our Government are elected. That principally is the responsibility of the other place. If a Government, having made their promises to the electors, are unable to keep their promises, not as a result of some conscious decision on the Government’s part but as a result of a decision of the unelected European Commission, or the unaccountable European Court of Justice, that crucial connection is broken. That is why our membership of the European Union in its current form undermines and erodes our democracy.

[Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon]

If the noble Lord had not used the word “unelected”, I would not be asking this question, but does he feel no twinge at all about criticising an unelected institution elsewhere when he comes from an institution that bears no connection with democracy whatever?