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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

The hon. Gentleman is just preparing himself. For the reasons that I have set out, this timetable is completely unsatisfactory. I think that the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor knows that very well in his heart. It may be that there was never a magical moment in the past when matters could be fully considered, but I seem to recall—although it was before my time here—that my late father's experience in the House was that it was common for the Report stage of a Bill to go through the night if that was necessary to conclude the business and enable amendments to be considered. We have abandoned that, yet we have also just come back from a 10-day period when the House was not sitting, for which we came in for rather a lot of public criticism. However, if this Bill were really important—and given the imminence of an election and the urgency of implementing Kelly—there is no reason why we could not have forgone some of that break to get an extra day or two for our consideration. I am very mindful that, in every debate on programme motions, the Government say, "Well, if only you didn't debate the programme motion, you'd have a bit more time to debate the Bill." That illustrates the powerlessness of this House in the face of the Executive, which is something that urgently needs reform. I hope and believe that an incoming Conservative Government will make that reform their first priority. In the meantime, this motion is entirely unsatisfactory. I strongly imagine that it will be objected to, and we will join in that objection.