If yesterday’s debate in the House of Commons had been a football match, it would have been a nil nil draw.
This was the Report Stage of the Bill’s progress. After approving the Bill in principle last November, the House had set up a Committee to scrutinise its contents “line by line”. Yesterday was when the Committee reported back to the Commons. It was also an opportunity for MPs to move further amendments of their own.
Over 100 such amendments were proposed. The Speaker selected just nine for debate. Of these, only two were actually discussed and voted upon. Then the House ran out of time. MPs were left angry, frustrated and muttering. Over 90 MPs had indicated that they wanted to speak. Only 28 were able to do so – and each of them was limited to five minutes. As the other 62 were keen to point out, this was hardly the democratic behaviour of the mother of all Parliaments.
However, three important points did emerge.
First, the overall support for the principle of the Bill appears unchanged from last November, in spite of some high profile movements in the allegiance of a few Members. Both amendments moved were defeated.
Second, the Bill is now complicated by so many safeguards and legalistic requirements that its overall effect, if passed, is likely to be marginal. Certainly, it is unlikely to have any impact on the numbers travelling to Switzerland each year.
Third, the proposer of the Bill, Kim Leadbeater, is herself proposing that there should be a ban on “advertising”. Taken at its most literal, that would mean this website would have to close. Information about the availability of AVD services, anywhere, would be in the same realm as information about cigarettes.
