As the annual ballot for private member’s bills draws nearer, I find myself being lobbied by increasing numbers of constituents who have had ‘happy thoughts’ -as Winston Churchill characterised them- about new laws by which we might be governed.
My prejudice, on the contrary, is that we already have too many laws and that we should be taking time to repeal some of them rather than making even more.
Nevertheless, every year I obey the instructions of my whip and put my name into the ballot, then I hope like hell that, once again, I will be unsuccessful.
The unfortunates, who do come in the top ten, will be inundated with pleas from every good cause to sponsor a bill to address some perceived evil.
So far, this year’s most numerous entreaty, even before entering the ballot -let alone being successful, is that I sponsor a bill to address the existential threat to humanity posed by climate change.
We already have a the Climate Change Act 2008 and, as a consequence, we’ve cut our Co2 emissions more than any other leading economy. The reality is that UK generates less than 1% of the World’s emissions. Real impact impact on the problem now lies in the hands of the big emitters like the USA, China and India. No UK legislation, from either the Government or a private member, will have any leverage on what those nations do.
So, back to the Private Member’s ballot: Success gives the winners a small amount of parliamentary time. To proceed to the become law therefore, a bill has itself to be small -that is, of very limited scope, or it will run out of the limited time available to it, unless the Government were to step in and give it some of the Government’s own parliamentary time – in which case it is arguable that it is no longer a private member’s bill, but something that the Government really wanted done anyway.
There are only 13 sitting Fridays set aside for the Commons to deal with private member’s bills.
Most MP’s will be in their constituencies on those Fridays, with a long list of things to do. Nevertheless, we will receive entreaties from constituents, charities and other interest groups to go to Westminster on a particular Friday to support the bill they favour which is to be debated on that day.
I almost always decline.
The principal enemy of any private member’s bill is the shortage of time available. Opponents need not trouble themselves to vote against it – earning the opprobrium of all its supporters. All they need do is take up the time with lengthy speeches, even saying what a wonderful measure it is.
So, if you were an avid supporter of a bill, the last thing you would want to do, is to endanger its progress by turning up on its Friday and taking up some of its valuable time.
Hopefully I’ll be unsuccessful in the ballot again this year.