Lord Puttnam:

I can typify this as a tension between jobs and democracy and my concern is that democracy is in danger all the time of losing out to the jobs argument. I cannot think of a better invitation to populism than that. The Minister referred to draft legislation or the development of such legislation. An election will certainly come next year so is there a chance the legislation will be put in place? Our experience in the United Kingdom is that we badly dropped the ball. We are having an election right now with nothing like the recommendations the British Electoral Commission suggested are needed to have a fair and free election.

My concern is this. If the results of the UK election are contested, that would set up a time bomb in democracies throughout Europe, which would be very difficult to control.