Not entirely delighted...
I spoke too soon. It turns out the announcement of four extra sitting Fridays, for debates on has failed to delighted at least some backbenchers. The Conservative Peter Bone last night objected to the motion to add those days to the Commons calendar - arguing that pro-rata there should be eight more such days in the current extra-long parliamentary year. And he's now put down an amendment to that effect.
But he and his colleagues had put down a whole list of bills to be debated on particular days - even when they were expected to be non-sitting days, something you're allowed to do under Commons rules. Now their speculation has paid off and they have pole position for a series of debates on hyper-Thatcherite causes and will be able discuss them at length.
They even suspect the government may have chosen the days they named in their motion - 9 September, 21 October, 25 November and 20 January 2012, on the basis that those were the days when the bills they found least embarrassing were scheduled.
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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