Well, I learned something I didn’t know about parliamentary procedure yesterday. I had always assumed that the Private Members’ Bill Ballot was an actual ballot, where MPs voted for themselves or their colleagues. How naive was I? The secret is now out, and available on You Tube. It’s actually a big raffle as you can see here:
440 MPs’ names went into the box and just 20 were drawn out. Among them were 4 Liberal Democrats. We had Sir Robert Smith in 9th place, Mike Crockart in 11th, Mark Williams in 13th and Sir Malcolm Bruce in 14th. I asked Mike Crockart on Twitter last night what he planned to do. He replied:
@caronmlindsay I’m suddenly very popular and have had suggestions from many different orgs. The 4 LDs in top 15 will meet Mon to chat…
— Mike Crockart MP (@CrockartMP) May 16, 2013
He later added that it would be hard to pass up the chance to bring in a Bill on his No to Nuisance Calls campaign.
It’s interesting that all four MPs are from either Scotland or Wales. This means that the bill is most likely to be on an issue that applies to the whole of the UK. Once we know more, we’ll let you know.
Of the 20 Private Members’ Bills filed last year, 10 became law, including one which removed the legislative barriers to people with mental health conditions being MPs, jurors or company directors. You can read more about the other bills passed and how Private Members’ Bills are debated here on the Parliament website.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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8 Comments
Let’s have a bill to make Britain a full member of the Schengen agreement.
I’m trying to imagine a world in which the constitutional convention was that *all* bills had to originate from the backbenches, and the government were constitutionally prohibited from trying to push through, prevent, or even express an opinion on any of them — a world, in other words, where Parliament were truly sovereign, and the government were just those fellows tasked with carrying out its decrees.
repeal the benefits cuts
Unfortunately, none of them is in the first six, so they are unlikely to get any of their bills enacted. Good for publicity, though.
I guess if it were a real ballot of MPs the Lib Dems would never be near the top, so probably good thing it is a raffle
I was surprised at that figure of ten becoming law last year – and note that these were spread right down to number 17 in the ballot. Fingers crossed for a fair wind with whatever this latest Gang of Four decide on!
In the light of the AV referendum the Electoral Reform society is now focussing on a campaign to achieve proportional representation in English and Welsh local government elections. We already have it in Scotland thanks to the Lib Dems. This should be a red line demand if we go into coalition again in 2015. So let’s kick start the debate with a bill to enact this now. It won’t of course succeed this time but to quote Mao – the longest journey starts with the first step.
I try to imagine a world in which the constitutional norm was that all bills should emanate from back councils, and the government was constitutionally prohibited from trying to push, forbid, or even express an opinion on any of them – in other words, a world in which Parliament was truly sovereign, and it was The government is just those colleagues charged with implementing his decisions.