LETTER : Noah's dove over Westminster

From the Earl Russell

Sir: Monday's vote on the Scott report was a defeat not for Government or for Opposition but for Parliament. Parliament has now resolved that Ministers may knowingly mislead it provided that the task is done by those sufficiently skilled in sophistry to do so without duplicitous intent. In abandoning its claim to know what is going on, has Parliament abdicated sovereignty as clearly as James II did when he threw the Great Seal into the Thames?

Yours sincerely,

Russell

House of Lords

London, SW2

The writer is Liberal Democrat spokesman on Social Security.