There are three ways in which backbenchers can introduce a Private Members’ Bill. Well, two, but one has a faststream as well as a normal route, so that makes three. Imagine it’s May 9th 2012 and we’ve just had the Queen’s Speech: we don’t know it’s then, but it’s rumoured it will be, and it’s also rumoured that Sir George Young, the Leader of the House, will …

When we deal with amendments in the Commons the Speaker and his clerks will meet the morning of the debate, look at all the amendments that have been tabled and come up with what’s called the Speaker’s Selection. We often don’t get this until just before the sitting, i.e. at the start of oral questions and an hour before the debate on the Bill could start. 

Sometimes there are hundreds of amendments tabled. Today’s Selection was fairly simple. Some amendments were grouped under the heading ‘Employment Support Allowance’, some under the heading ‘Benefit Cap’ and then there was a miscellaneous group. Not all amendments are selected for debate. Whoever has tabled the amendment that heads the group – i.e. the first one listed – gets to open the debate. The movers of the other amendments grouped with it then try to pile …

Here’s the menu… www.shambhus.co.uk/lv  If the prospect of hearing me speak about all things relevant to the political vegan doesn’t tempt you, I suspect the menu will! Tofu tikka massala and mint choc chip cheesecake. Or does the lemon and coconut cheesecake sound better?

…

Another frequent search is “cos fashion”, ie people looking for the clothes store. That’s because I once quoted a line from “Do Nothing” by the Specials, “cos fashion is, my only culture”. I’ve just checked with the very helpful and somewhat addictive @GuardianStyle on Twitter to see whether it should be ’cause, coz or cos – the answer is, ‘cos. If you’re a pedant, there’s endless fun to be had here – http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide.

If you like seeing pictures of Paul Simonon you could always look at http://www.disneyrollergirl.net/paul-simonon-hot-hats/

…

The motion is:

“That this House notes with concern that unemployment has risen to its highest …

In the Commons however, “you” always means whoever’s in the Speaker’s Chair. Dawn Primarolo gave Laura her best Mary Poppins “practically perfect in every way” look… Oops.

…

I’m hoping to speak in the first debate, on Food Poverty. The motion we’ve tabled is this:

“This House notes that food prices rose by more than 4% over the last year and that more families are relying on foodbanks; expresses its dismay at Government delays to the Groceries Code Adjudicator and that the Government has rejected BIS and Efra select committee recommendations to give it teeth; and therefore calls on the Government to bring forward proposals for the Groceries Code Adjudicator early in the next Parliament to ensure fairness across the food supply chain; believes that the Adjudicator should have the power to penalise retailers for unfair practices and that …

This year, in recognition of the Live Music Bill and the fact that it’s all well-intentioned and Bristol has a thriving live music scene – as the documentary plugged in this piece on Bristol 24/7 shows – I have decided to stop being a spoilsport and to take part. (In fact Bristol lays claim to having more live musicians per capita than anywhere else in the UK). I’ll be putting out a plea in the local press this week for bands to contact me. They can’t have a record contract, I think that’s more or less the …

“You are confusing accent with diction. There is nothing wrong with the former, lack of attention to the latter is just laziness. It cannot be excused, especially in your case, by lack of education.”

Well that’s told me. I’m not sure he/ she is right though… Surely some accents are defined by the fact speakers drop various letters, as well as pronouncing certain vowels/ consonants in a particular way? Isn’t, say, Estuary English an accent just the same as Scouse or Brummie or Geordie accents are? Would Professor Higgins pull up a Geordie for poor diction too, or would the Prof just accept that’s the way they speak up there?

In Bristol there are so many incomers that it’s difficult to tell who is from …

“At a rail meeting in committe room 15 the Council House [last night], repeated calls were made for the four local authorities in the Bristol area to set up a Integrated Transport Authority ( ITA ) or at least take on the equivalent set of powers. That would allow them to regulate …

Borgen does seem worth …

It was in the Daily Mail yesterday, and has been in other papers too. It follows on from a parliamentary Q asked by shadow Defence minister Kevan Jones, which shows that some army horses have been destroyed because their ‘temperament’ was wrong. The comments, as ever, make entertaining reading, with some readers outraged that HorseWorld – which rescues, rehabilitates and rehomes horses, donkeys and ponies who have been abandoned, neglected or ill-treated - even exists. “We used to kill grumpy mammoths for rampaging through stone age camps” says one reader.

Here’s the HorseWorld press release if you don’t want to click on the Mail link. To give the Mail credit though, as I’ve said before, it IS good on animal welfare stories. Saturday’s edition also has big stories on badger baiting, and on hunting tourism, with a hideous picture of a family on holiday…

I discovered this clip via Sabotage Times. The ideal way to treat an annoying interviewer.

…

Dear Kerry,

I have just heard your interview on Radio 4 and it is no wonder to me that some children  cannot speak properly when they hear people who should know better failing to recognise the letter ‘g’ at the end of words like “speaking” or “voting”. You can do better than this, surely?

Regards…

I am tempted to just reply: “I’m from Luton, that’s how we speak!” (And I pronounce the ‘t’ in Luton which makes me quite posh by local standards!) Perhaps I should ask the Mogg for elecution lessons?

Here’s a song for him (completely unreconstructed anti-feminist …

The best gig I ever went to was in a venue that probably didn’t hold many more than 200. It was at the Wendover Wellhead Inn, in Buckinghamshire. They put on some great bands there but we couldn’t usually go because there was no public transport from Luton and in the 1980s none of us had cars. But we managed to get over there to see Thin White Rope at some point in, I think-  judging from this blogged tour diary I’ve just found – in 1991.

I say we – that was me and a group of lads who were in local grunge-type bands. We were into  Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom, Swervedriver, Teenage Fanclub, Mudhoney, Nirvana of course, that sort of thing. I was also into …

The Live Music Bill, however, despite not being debated, went through on the nod. I think it was the only one of the 60 or so Private Members’ Bills on the Order Paper today to get through. The others will be listed for another day, as will the Daylight Saving Bill, but again, most of them will be too far down the list to get a hearing. In fact many MPs asked for their Bills to be listed again ‘Friday next’ when I don’t think the House is even sitting.

At the end of the parliamentary session, around Easter, they’ll fall, and the sponsors only …

After the result of the closure vote – which is taking ages - we vote on the actual amendments, and Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, has said that if the SNP MPs whose amendment leads the group don’t push for a vote, then he’s going to push one of his amendments – which means another 15 minutes wasted.

The SNP, to be fair, have been quite reasonable. They oppose the Daylight Saving Bill and have made their concerns known in the debate, but they haven’t indulged in time-wasting. This is partly, I think, because SNP MP Pete Wishart (formerly of Runrig and now keyboard player in parliament’s MP4) is an avid supporter of the Live Music Bill and doesn’t want to delay getting to it. …

19th January 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Badger killing trial is rigged – and useless

The Coalition Government says its culling trials will be science-led, but it has rigged the pilots from the start. It has chosen two areas “as the most suitable to pilot controlled shooting of badgers”. The next sentence claims the trial will be “part of a science-led policy” to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
Any trial that takes place in a “carefully selected area” only, cannot possibly be science-led and would be useless if the methods were applied to other areas.

No exact whereabouts are given in the official announcement, nor in the Minister’s accompanying statement. Consequently it is difficult for the public, both lay and scientific , to verify any assertions about effectiveness. Furthermore, no indications have yet been provided of how the pilot trials will be adequately and independently monitored to ensure they are effective and humane. There …

I’m sad to hear that Sue’s campaigning has had a negative impact on her health. Her post here on Labour List illustrates exactly why the Government’s Work Capability Assessments are flawed, in that they often don’t take account of the highs and lows of people with fluctuating conditions. I’ve done a fair bit of work on this in the past, particularly on behalf of people with ME, as Action for ME is …