Government loses Commons vote

Stewart

Jack Straw said of the idea that he might ram the rejected reform provison through parliament despite the defeat, "Why would I push through an unpopular provision unless there was clearly a need for it?" Oh, I don't know, perhaps people got the idea from Labour's horrendous and repeated abuse of the Parliament Act through out its time in power. Straw said he would 'respect' the decision. So he bloody well should. The fact that he felt the need to utter this speaks volumes of Labour's recent history of ignoring the will of Parliament and doing whatever it feels like.

Jonathan Prior

"The clause would have allowed words spoken in the Commons to be used as evidence in court, undermining the independence of the legislature."

Only in relation to narrowly drawn criminal offences relating to(undeclared) paid advocacy. How could you prosecute these crimes without any evidence of the wrongdoing? And yet MPs support the creation of the offence! Just want to stop evidence of wrongdoing being brought to court. Pull the other one.

Funny how the same people who were foaming about the fact that the Sunday Times 'cash for amendments' peers couldn't be prosecuted are up in arms about this.

Chris Rose

This is excellent news. It does at last show that the Commons has some determination to stand up for itself.

Would the the house would throw out the whole of this shoddy bill! MPs may not be too popular just now, but we do not want our House of Commons to be emasculated. We just want our MPs to fight on our behalf, rather then theirs.

johnfaganwilliams

Do you remember how we laughed at Belgium when - for months - there was no recognisable government? Well, that is where we are now. GREAT Britain, reduced to this. A PM who can't push any legislation through because his own party won't support him. A foreign secretary who is a laughing stock. Ever-faster declining rankings in education. No industry worth calling serious - unless it is foreign ownership. A tax time-bomb awaiting any entrepreneur who might create wealth. Separate cultures completely independent of the old "Anglo Saxon Protestant" mores that built the Empire allowed a Robin Hood style status in the no-go areas of major cities throughout the country. A nation in thrall to unelected officials in, yes, Belgium. what the hell happened? And how do we get these simply awful people out of our lives. God knows I don't necessarily think that Team Cameron has all the answers but compared to the alternatives he is a White Knight rushing to our rescue. If I could wish for one thing it would be that he would lose his fear of the electorate and be more radical.........

TomTom

247 MPs were happy for the Bill of Rights to be abrogated. Be good to list their names

CS

It's laughable that people are seriously suggesting that it's worth throwing out the principle that an MP can speak in Parliament without fear of prosecution merely for the sake of allowing us to get at the occasional MP with his fingers in the till. If you find MPs doing that, then make a big song and dance about it and with any luck his constituents will kick him out at the next election.

With the prinicple of Parliamentary Privilege as strong as it is now, we still get opposition MPs arrested when they piss off the government. Do we really want to make it even easier for vested interests to silence MPs?

I suppose we oughtn't to be that surprised when we consider how eager the foam-flecked Daily Mail brigade were to abandon habeas corpus as soon as the prospect of locking up a few darkies was dangled in front of them.

So, forgive me, Jonathan Prior if I'm not reassured by your promises that it'd be "only in relation to narrowly drawn criminal offences". Tell that to Walter Wolfgang.

In the wake of the expenses nonsense, it's not Parliament's procedures which need to be changed. All that needs to be changed is the electorate's willingness to elect venal candidates.