Fishy business
The fishermen - or rather their MPs - are worried. It's just beginning to sink into the consciousness of interested MPs that some of the regular features of the Commons calendar are now under the control of the Backbench Business Committee.
That includes the annual fisheries debate, usually held in the run-up to the meeting of the EU Council of fisheries ministers.
The fisheries debate, with its arcane-sounding discussions of marine biomass tonnage and similar issues, is an important annual event for those MPs with a constituency interest. In the past it's had a primetime slot in the chamber, but this year's debate is to be held on 2 December in Westminster Hall, the Commons' parallel debating chamber.
At Commons Business Questions last week, the former Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, complained that the government should be making the time available - not deducting it from the Backbench Committee's allowance.
But it isn't deducting anything. (see par 145) makes clear that a number of set-piece debates including the fisheries debate and the regular debates held before European summits will come under the aegis of the Backbench Business Committee and some MPs for fishing constituencies - and there are about 80 of them (plus, I daresay a few MPs for chi-chi inner city constituencies who're worried about the availability of monkfish and red mullet) - may regard holding the debate in Westminster Hall as a demotion.
So far the Backbench Business Committee has been pretty shrewd in its choice of subjects to be debated, and in developing an open process to choose them. For the first time, with this decision, it may have upset actual backbenchers.
This may matter because the committee is still a new kid on the Westminster block - and there are some who would be happy to see it fail.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
Comments
or to comment.