Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

A nice moment in what was otherwise a pretty humdrum Friday sitting of the Commons today. This is probably the last day the Commons will spend on Private Member's Bills before the election (two days are scheduled in mid April and one in May, but no-one expects Parliament to still be sitting by then) and Chris Chope, the Conservative ex-minister who devotes a fair amount of his time to killing what he regards as vexatious and flabby bills proposed by do-gooding lefties found a moment to be nice to Deputy Speaker Sylvia Heal.

She often presides over these sessions and often finds herself having to restrain that breed of backbench MP who revels in the strange environment of private members' business. Mr Chope, his disciple Phillip Davies, Labour's Andrew Dismore, and a few others, specialise in exploiting the rather odd rules for this kind of bill, either for creative, or destructive purposes.

(At any given moment Mr Dismore seems to have half a dozen bills on the go, and he has an impressive hit-rate in getting them debated, and even passed.)

And it's Madam Deputy Speaker Heal who is called upon to restrain them, when they stretch parliamentary procedure beyond its normal limits. She's standing down at the next election (as are her two colleagues, Sir Michael Lord and Sir Alan Haselhurst). To titters, Mr Chope thanked her (quite genuinely) for all the times she'd managed to keep him in order... adding that no-one would ever accuse her of being anything other than consistent in her rulings.

Ms Heal has been a graceful and genial deputy - her trademark is the involuntary wince she gives when MPs shout "Aye!" or "No!" when she puts a motion to the House. Since Mr Speaker can't preside all the time, he and his predecessor in this Parliament have been pretty lucky in their three deputies. The next House of Commons will have to choose three worthy successors...

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