Tuesday 21 May 2013

Bin The Bill

Like the privatisation of the Royal Mail, it will never pass the House of Lords, which might (probably won't, but might) refuse it a Second Reading altogether. Like the privatisation of the Royal Mail, no one will weep when it doesn't. Unlike the privatisation of the Royal Mail, even this Government would never invoke the Parliament Act in order to force it through.

But even so. After a day of some of the most farcical machinations in recent memory, perhaps most notable for the alliance that the present Labour front bench and Whips' Office were seriously and publicly considering with people such as Sir Gerald Howarth against people such as Margot James, it is time to face the fact that Third Reading is not a vote on a principle. It is a vote strictly on a text.

The text of this Bill is no better now than it was at Second Reading. Those who abstained while known to be opposed, and in some cases (Stephen Timms) after having said so forcefully in the debate, now have no option but to vote against. Think of Roger Godsiff, Gavin Shuker and others.

The same goes for the goodly number, especially on the Labour benches, of those who abstained, or even voted in favour of Second Reading, in the hope of bringing related issues to the floor of the House, or that the final Bill would be a better-constructed piece of legislation, the view of David Blunkett.

Several people, especially Lib Dems and including that party's Deputy Leader and its President, voted yesterday for unsuccessful amendments without which the Bill proceeds to Third Reading later today. How can they vote for Third Reading with those amendments not incorporated into the Bill?

Dog's Breakfast Bills relating to the composition of the House of Lords and to the boundaries for elections to the House of Commons have, mercifully, been withdrawn. But the Government is determined to push this one. There is only one thing to do.

5 comments:

  1. Ed Miliband is determined to get the bill onto the statute book. How do you feel about that, David?

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  2. why do you think it should be voted down?

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  3. I recall you telling me that it would not make Second Reading. Then, that hundreds of Labour MP's were planning to vote against. Then, after that did not happen, that it would not make Third Reading and that the aforementioned Labour MP's would emerge....

    So here we are. Third Reading up and coming. All the defeated amendments gone with large majorities. The number of Labour malcontents even smaller than last time.
    And Labour actually actively helping David Cameron, making it clear that it is their role as they see it to get this Bill passed as a priority

    As you are a traditionalist, yo will realise that the Lords will ultimately not block this change because the majority will be so large and the Lords know their role is ultimately subordinate to the elected chamber.

    You've been entirely wrong so far. Just wanting something to happen won't make it happen - as a party Labour is overwhelmingly committed to gay equality these days

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  4. As Iain Martin notes today, neither of Britain's Big Two parties can ever command so much as 40% support.

    The realignment of British politics is coming-with UKIP set to overtake the Tories in the polls for the first time.

    As Peter Hitchens Tweeted today, 2015 will see a Labour-Lib Dem Coalition.

    But these parties aren't going to be around much longer-no normal person likes them any more.

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  5. Ed Miliband couldn't care less. He just enjoys watching the Tories tear themselves apart. Almost as much as they enjoy doing it, it seems.

    It is a shambolic text, somewhere between Lewis Carroll and Monty Python. This Government has form when it comes to such Bills, but up to now they been withdrawn. It is determined the press this one.

    I never said that it would never make Second Reading. I did say that it would never reach the Statute Book, and I stand by that. It had to be carried over from the previous session, and that was before it hit the Lords. It's toast.

    Peter Hitchens has been saying that almost for ever now. Somehow, it never happens. Labour only needs 30 per cent of the votes cast in order to win outright in 2015. In the bag.

    Largely thanks to UKIP, which guarantees that the Tories won't do any better than about 25 or 26 per cent. But not exclusively so.

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