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Sittings of the House

Fridays are important for constituency work, but I do constituency work every day of the week. We are talking about 13 Fridays a Session, and, basically, only the mornings of those days. I do not think that the hon. Lady's argument washes. She failed to say that on a Friday it is only Members who are interested in a particular Bill who turn up, and not the whole House. If the hon. Lady can guarantee that the whole House will turn up on the eight days that she has suggested, because that would give them other Fridays off, I might be inclined to think again about the motion. Of course, that is not at all what the motion is about. The motion is about restricting the voice of this House. The hon. Lady's helpful intervention leads me to "Rebuilding the House", the first report of the 2008-09 Session by the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons. It talks about the timing of private Members' Bills and states:""The House should be responsible for ensuring that merely procedural devices cannot obstruct Private Members' Bills, and that they are brought to a decision."" The Government are using the procedural device of suspending Standing Orders to obstruct private Members' Bills. The shadow Leader of the House also argued that there is a problem with Fridays. "Rebuilding the House" suggests in paragraph 193 that Wednesday evenings could be used for private Members' Bills. I have not sought to go that far, but it would overcome entirely the hon. Lady's objection that too many Fridays will be used up. If I could have a guarantee from the shadow Leader of the House before the end of the debate that instead of using the Fridays that are free, they will put the extra five days on Wednesdays, I would more than happily withdraw my amendment and accept the shadow Leader of the House's words—