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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I have now heard two speakers, from the Conservative Front Bench and from the Government Front Bench, who are muddled in their thinking and completely misunderstand the basic process that the Bill is intended to elucidate. The hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing) went off on a mini-tirade about how we were completely wrong to question whether Ministers should hire and fire civil servants. When my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) put it to her that she might support the hiring and firing of civil servants by Ministers, she said that of course she did not and that that was outrageous. We really do expect some coherence of thought and some logic in the contributions made in this House, especially from the Front Bench of a party that aspires to government.