Black Friday

There were exceptions, but the Labour and ex-Labour Left voted heavily against assisted suicide, while MPs from visible ethnic minorities were also far more likely to do so. All of the Independent Alliance voted against, as did all but one of those who lost the Labour Whip over the two-child benefit cap. The exception was John McDonnell. Once a renegade ex-seminarian, I suppose. By stark contrast, not only did all four Greens vote in favour, but so did three of the five MPs from Reform UK, 60 per cent, a slightly higher percentage than Labour. Rupert Lowe did so because 892 of 1,181 people in a straw poll of his constituents told him to. He is not a Burke.

Once this was over, then who still would be? If the King signed this, then even I might become a republican. I have always said that the monarchist and the republican arguments were each rubbish in its own terms, so the case for change had not been made. But after this? The late Queen signed absolutely everything, and Royal Assent was also granted to assisted suicide in Canada, in New Zealand, and at state or territory level over much of Australia. The monarch even retains the title "Defender of the Faith" in Canada and New Zealand. There as here, it is either obviously quite meaningless, or it means something utterly repugnant. You cannot be a figurehead of nothing. There is no such thing as mere symbolism. The symbolic is not mere.

Seconds after this vote, the Government Whip on duty's objection blocked consideration of the Children's Hospices (Funding) Bill. That Whip was Christian Wakeford, who had just voted in favour of assisted suicide. The blocked Bill's sponsor was the whipless scourge of child poverty, Ian Byrne, who had just voted against it. But he intends to bring it back on Friday 24 January. We shall be watching.