I began Business Questions this week by welcoming the Lords Spiritual (Women) Bill, which comes before parliament next Monday and, if passed, will speed up the process of appointing women bishops to the House of Lords.
Even those of us who feel that the unelected and supersized chamber is in need of more radical reform, can welcome this bill. Prior to the creation of Labour’s Senate of the Nations and Regions, it is only right that the Lords Spiritual should consist of women bishops as well as men.
I also raised the government’s odious Lobbying Act. Despite repeated government promises that free speech would be protected, last week the Electoral Commission wrote to a range of political blogs including LabourList warning them about falling foul of the act. It is time for the government to admit that despite all the false promises this law is having the effect they desired. It is silencing criticism of the government and supressing healthy democratic debate. The only reasonable thing to do is repeal this disgraceful assault on free speech and the next Labour government will do just that.
In other news the Conservative election campaign continues to lurch from one embarrassment to another. First we had the fiasco of the German road which it now turns out was airbrushed to remove all the potholes and this week this week they have unveiled six ‘election priorities’ which amazingly make no mention of the NHS.
Such is their popularity they have also been caught spending tens of thousands of pounds buying their own Facebook friends, and they are so confident of victory that the prime minister is running scared of each and every chance to be held to account in debates.
As well as his ridiculous excuses to avoid the TV debates, he promised to be interviewed by Bite the Ballot in front of first time voters – something which every other party leader has now done, even the leaders of the minor parties like the deputy prime minister turned up.
But now David Cameron has suddenly pulled out, absurdly claiming that of the 111 days until the election there are “no dates that would work”.
The Liberal Democrats are not doing much better. After Cameron rebuked the Tory chief whip for messing with his mobile phone in cabinet, the chief secretary decided to take the ‘secretary’ part of his job very seriously and “leapt in to reinforce the prime minister’s message”, pointing out that he too had spotted others using their phones during cabinet.
Doesn’t everyone just love a teacher’s pet?
And I think the business secretary is jealous. After being unceremoniously dumped as economic spokesman from the farcical Liberal Democrat cabinet-within-a-cabinet that is apparently designed to shadow the cabinet whilst actually propping up the cabinet. He has insisted that he is still economic spokesman and that his demotion is just a ‘minor internal matter’, which sounds like how the Tories refer to the Liberal Democrats.
Today we will learn who has been nominated for an Oscar this year and I think us Brits have got at least one in the bag. This government will win the award for best farce.
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Angela Eagle is member of parliament for Wallasey, shadow leader of the House of Commons and writes the weekly Business of Parliament column for Progress. She tweets @AngelaEagle
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