Today’s punch-up between David Cameron and the Speaker of the Commons is not the first procedural clash in Parliament this week.
In Monday there was a full seven minutes of procedural to-and-fro in the self-regulated House of Lords, culminating in the Government Chief Whip coming in to the chamber to try and bring order to the proceedings – failing, and then finally succeeding with the aid of the clerk.
The argument was between Lord Baker of Dorking for the Conservatives, who wished to move an amendment to the Education and Inspections bill, and Lord Rooker for the Government, who had been asked by the Tory front bench to repeat David Milliband’s statement on climate change. Along the way you also hear the Lord Onslow, and finally Lord Grocott, the Government Chief Whip.
We’ve cut out the first five minutes, but you can read it in full here. You can listen to the end of the argument below.
What makes this ridiculous is that there was at the time, sat on the woolsack, the new Lord Speaker – with no powers to intervene and settle the discussion. £101,668 a year to sit on the Woolsack and look pretty.
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6 Comments
“£101,668 a year to sit on the Woolsack and look pretty”
You call THAT pretty?
Oh dear Rob. Time to go the opticians.
I would never seek to comment disparigingly on a lady’s appearance…
How gentlemanly……
But you really do need an eyetest mate
Not ridiculous at all. Self-regulation works remarkably well and – the real point – far better than the Commons where hours are wasted on points of order etc and everyone is always trying to pull a fast one. And you complain about a paltry 7 minutes in the Lords!
What actually happened on the Education Bill is that a number of Tory grandees were trying to pull rank and hijack the House. Including Lord (David)Waddington who as a former leader of the House should be ashamed of himself. If this had happened in his day he would have gone purple with rage.
Unfortunately I did not get into the Chamber (for the staement) until the attempted putsch was under way otherwise I might have intervened to sort it out (as every member has a right to do!)
In the event Baker botched it because he tried to move amendmnet 12, even though amendment 11 had not been dealt with. So he was out of order.
Pity the LD front bench had not spotted that before the clerk did.
Tony Greaves
I don’t deny self-regulation works well, I’m just mystified as to what the Lord Speaker is for if she can’t resolve situations just such as this!
But an enlightening analysis Tony, thanks!
Indeed.