Skip to main content

Debate on bill on Thursday, 8 April 2010, in the House of Commons.


Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill


Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
508 c1203-22 
Session
2009-10
Department
Ministry of Justice
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Related items
Proceeding contributions
Jack Straw | 508 c1206 (Link to this contribution) No, it was not the Conservatives. If the hon. Gentleman reads the debates, he will see that Lord Tre...
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1206-7 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Secretary of State for his approach to the issue in the wash-up. I start by providing s...
Show all contributions (70)
William Cash | 508 c1207 (Link to this contribution) May I say how glad I and, I am sure, many of my hon. Friends are to note that the provisions relatin...
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1207 (Link to this contribution) I am most grateful to my hon. Friend. On that provision, I can probably take either the blame or the...
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1208-9 (Link to this contribution) I resent the hon. Gentleman's implication. There was no collusion. I was asked for my opinion on wha...
David Howarth | 508 c1208 (Link to this contribution) That is a very good point. I noticed that yesterday the Crime and Security Bill went through the oth...
Speaker | 508 c1209 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I say to the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) that we do not want to enlarge the...
Evan Harris | 508 c1208 (Link to this contribution) I am glad that my hon. Friend makes that point, because other legislative vehicles that have receive...
David Howarth | 508 c1207-8 (Link to this contribution) The way in which the Bill has been handled throughout has been catastrophic. The Government delayed ...
David Howarth | 508 c1209 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is entirely right. Do we have just another political manoeuvre, whereby the Governmen...
David Howarth | 508 c1209 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I was tempted along that route by the Secretary of State's opening re...
Evan Harris | 508 c1209 (Link to this contribution) Again, the Government could have programmed the private Member's Bill concerned as a stand-alone Bil...
Speaker | 508 c1203 (Link to this contribution) We come to Lords amendments to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, which have been receiv...
Jack Straw | 508 c1203 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 1.
Speaker | 508 c1203 (Link to this contribution) With this, it will be convenient to discuss Lords amendments 2 to 5, 34 to 38, 58, 67 to 70, 73 and ...
Lord Beith | 508 c1203 (Link to this contribution) It would have been better if the Secretary of State had initiated discussions with all those parties...
Jack Straw | 508 c1203 (Link to this contribution) It might be helpful if I begin by explaining to the House the conclusion that was reached in the oth...
Jack Straw | 508 c1203-4 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is of even greater antiquity than me and he will know that there is a great...
Jack Straw | 508 c1204 (Link to this contribution) May I bring to the House's attention an almost historic first for the hon. Gentleman, for whom I hav...
Jack Straw | 508 c1204 (Link to this contribution) I will give way in a moment. We therefore had no alternative but to withdraw the provision, and I am...
William Cash | 508 c1204 (Link to this contribution) On referendums on reform, does the Minister for Justice accept that, historically, the Liberal Democ...
Evan Harris | 508 c1205 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister explain whether "could not achieve it" means just that the Conservatives did not w...
Jack Straw | 508 c1204-5 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, Europe has PR too. It is a matter of historical record that until late 1923 the Labour part...
Evan Harris | 508 c1206 (Link to this contribution) I think that the Minister glossed over a bit because he went straight from Crown employment to later...
Jack Straw | 508 c1205 (Link to this contribution) The hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield can speak for himself, but I have no information whatso...
David Howarth | 508 c1218 (Link to this contribution) The answer is yes, and that would also apply to the reforms of this place itself. Changing the elect...
David Howarth | 508 c1218 (Link to this contribution) This really is the last intervention.
Graham Allen | 508 c1218 (Link to this contribution) This intervention allows me to pass on my best wishes to the hon. Gentleman and to congratulate him ...
Graham Allen | 508 c1222 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. After the Iraq war, many Members became very interested in ...
Speaker | 508 c1222 (Link to this contribution) It is just about in order to ask me, but I haven't a clue. Nor would the Chair be expected to have a...
Jack Straw | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) That is for a longer and separate debate.
William Cash | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that suggestion. I am quite sure that it will not happen, particularly in relation...
David Howarth | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) We on the Liberal Democrat Benches are content with the amendment. Lords amendment 6 agreed to.
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) I welcome amendment 6. I suppose that it shows what can be achieved when minds are concentrated wond...
Jack Straw | 508 c1213 (Link to this contribution) With the leave of the House, I would like to thank all hon. Members for their observations and to sp...
Jack Straw | 508 c1213-4;508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) There are two stages to the coming into force of a treaty. One is the signature and the second is ra...
William Cash | 508 c1213 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Gentleman agree, or have any sympathy with, my general proposition that in fact ...
Speaker | 508 c1212 (Link to this contribution) Order. I am reluctant at heart to have to interrupt the hon. Gentleman again, but he is allowing him...
William Cash | 508 c1211-2 (Link to this contribution) I shall gladly follow that suggestion, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I refer in particular, therefore, to the ...
Speaker | 508 c1211 (Link to this contribution) Order. I do not want to be seen as picking on the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) unduly, because t...
William Cash | 508 c1212-3 (Link to this contribution) I am glad to take note of that point, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I shall not transgress again, but I wa...
Tony Wright | 508 c1209-10 (Link to this contribution) The wash-up process in general leaves much about which to be dissatisfied and, one day, no doubt we ...
Lord Beith | 508 c1211 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman foresee that when a distinguished Committee—chaired by someone perhaps not a...
William Cash | 508 c1210-1 (Link to this contribution) I understand Liberal Democrat concerns about reform of the voting and electoral systems. I have alre...
Tony Wright | 508 c1210 (Link to this contribution) The hon. and learned Gentleman anticipates my later remarks—the case for fresh thinking about what h...
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1210 (Link to this contribution) I am interested in the hon. Gentleman's comments about the wash-up process being unsatisfactory. I a...
David Howarth | 508 c1218 (Link to this contribution) I accept that there is all sorts of interesting research on first past the post, but all this seems ...
Jack Straw | 508 c1217-8 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman also accept that it is simply untrue that there is as large a bias in the cu...
David Howarth | 508 c1217 (Link to this contribution) The hon. and learned Gentleman is right; it is a jemmy in the door, which we intend at some stage to...
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1217 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, but from talking to some of his colleagues I had underst...
David Howarth | 508 c1217 (Link to this contribution) The Conservatives support the system for the obvious reason that occasionally, and in some decades f...
William Cash | 508 c1217 (Link to this contribution) Did the hon. Gentleman hear the interesting piece on the "Today" programme during which John Curtice...
David Howarth | 508 c1216-7 (Link to this contribution) I am all in favour of making the electoral system fairer. That is why I oppose the amendment, becaus...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 508 c1216 (Link to this contribution) Surely the hon. Gentleman agrees that a system in which every vote is of equal value, because there ...
Lord Wills | 508 c1217 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that. Does the hon. Gentleman agree, however, that when we talk about fairness it ...
David Howarth | 508 c1216 (Link to this contribution) That is a very good metaphor. In fact, that proposal combined with the other Conservative proposal t...
Evan Harris | 508 c1216 (Link to this contribution) Was my hon. Friend struck, as I was, by the assertion by the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfiel...
David Howarth | 508 c1216 (Link to this contribution) The timing of this discussion is quite extraordinary. The day after the Prime Minister announced a p...
Dominic Grieve | 508 c1215-6 (Link to this contribution) As I indicated earlier, I must claim some responsibility for the fact that the clause has been remov...
Jack Straw | 508 c1215 (Link to this contribution) My reflection is as follows, since I was the Minister responsible for sponsoring the Jenkins review ...
Evan Harris | 508 c1215 (Link to this contribution) There is a feeling of déjà vu. Labour's earlier commitment to electoral reform—in the 1997 manifesto...
Jack Straw | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) These amendments relate to the removal from the Bill of the provisions in part 3 for a referendum on...
Speaker | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) With this, it will be convenient to consider Lords amendments 8 to 15, 50 to 52, 55, 57, 74 and 75.
Jack Straw | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 7.
Jack Straw | 508 c1214 (Link to this contribution) If I may just complete this point; that is always subject to ratification. I felt, as Foreign Secret...
Jack Straw | 508 c1213 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 6. The amendment relates to the treaty p...
David Howarth | 508 c1217 (Link to this contribution) I agree with the Minister. The idea that fiddling with boundaries based on out-of-date information c...
Jack Straw | 508 c1205-6 (Link to this contribution) And he confirms that. The other place is very different. It might be attached to this building, but...
Subjects
Alternative vote Civil service Referendums Voting methods
Link
View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk