Best Of

Question about the Assisted Dying Bill and it being timed out by a session ending.

If a bill is being talked out by the lords, as may be happening now, why doesn't the government just extend the parliamentary session until the stages are complete? SFAICS the only compulsory end to a parliamentary session is the five year rule for automatic dissolution.

Just bring it back identical in next session and pass it with the Parliament Act.

Bypass the unelected House.

Then it's no longer a private member's bill, perhaps? Is that right?

At which point the question of why it wasn't in Labour's manifesto arises.

Why?

If a PMB passes, identically, again then that is valid for the Parliament Act.

The Parliament Act says nothing about manifestos.

Convention says fundamental changes to the contract between state and individual ought to be in manifestos. Convention also says (as far as I recall) that use of the parliament act should be for things which were in manifestos only.

Starmer is less unpopular than Sunak was at this point in his premiership. Just.

Last day you can make the comparison, too

Then just under a month to overtake Eden.

After that, there are a bunch of pub names (kudos to whoever first made that observation), before a cluster of modern PMs who lasted just under or over three years; Brown, Chamberlian, May, Callaghan and Johnson. Failures, yes, but not abject failures. I wonder if Starmer can make it into that elevated group?

If he survives Mandelson and Mays elections he will be with us till the GE imo, but I think he goes after May

Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?

What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?

He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in

What the actual fuck does that mean?!

I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.

You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.

I have been my whole adult life

I was quite comfortable as a child; my folks worked hard and made sure that they could support our little family

They were poor when I was born, but got gradually better off. I'm sure that there were times when money was tight, but we never sat down to discuss the household bills around the kitchen table

Maybe Keir had a huge phone bill and used too much heating and electricity, so needed a talking to.. but why else would you include your children in the household bills discussion?

I think its perfectly normal for kids to overhear their parents talking about there being too much month at the end of their money.