A busy Friday
A new Commons character is born - for the second running, Bury North's David Nuttall is treating MPs to a marathon speech.
Presumably his aim is to help "talk out" the Sustainable Livestock Bill which hopes to reduce British meat and dairy factory farms' dependence on animal feed grown in South America. Under the slightly strange Commons rules for private members' bills, 100 MPs have to vote in favour of ending the debate and moving to a vote to give the bill a second reading - a "closure motion" in Commons jargon - and if they just keep on talking, until time runs out, the bill effectively loses its chance of getting any further, unless some very cunning footwork is employed.
Speaker Bercow has already been on his feet, remarking that Mr Nuttall took 99 minutes to develop his argument last time, and hoping he will be a little more brief this time. Some hope...
For once it's a busy Friday in Westminster. Their Lordships are sitting to debate the Strategic Security and Defence Review - with 49 peers listed to contribute including a galaxy of former defence secretaries (John Hutton is due to make his maiden speech) admirals and generals.
The debate is expected to continue till around 5pm, and, and via Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Parliament...
And as I write the temperature is rising. After a low key opening from the Defence Minister Lord Astor of Hever, Labour's Lord Rosser has been getting some vehement "hear hears". The last debate of this kind, under the previous government, saw a succession of vastly senior military figures bombarding Labour positions with frustrated fury. Their target this time may well be the Coalition's plans. I'll update as events unfold.
UPDATE: Mr Nuttall has just sat down. He restricted himself to a relatively modest 71 minutes today - it was 99 minutes last time.
UPDATE at 1240: The government is taking a considerable kicking from the massed ranks of former defence secretaries, and retired generals and admirals in the Lords Strategic Defence and Security Review debate.
Several have weighed in, but the most devastating so far has been Lord Boyce, former Chief of the Defence Staff 2001-03, who savaged the decisions. He remarked that the Treasury would doubtless want any service personnel who were released to be given the minimum possible payoff; noted that there was no compulsory redundancy scheme for Ministry of Defence civil servants; blasted the logic used to justify the decision not to have aircraft on the Navy's two new carriers for 10 years in withering terms; wondering whether the members of the new National Security Council had been asleep through recent crises, when they argued that there was no threat in sight which would justify keeping the capability; pointed out that ministers would not be expected to sail in aging Trident submarines, and warning that ministers were taking "an "enormous gamble" with national security for financial reasons, adding they should have the moral courage to admit it.
I could smell the scorching from here.
UPDATE 1400: An attempt to close the debate on the Sustainable Livestock Bill and move to a vote has just failed - MPs votes in favour by 62-29, but the rules require 100 plus MPs voting in favour, so a kind of zombie debate shuffles on towards the end of the allotted time at 2.30pm.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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