Tag: Filibustering

The Downright Dishonourable Phil E Buster (Con, Shipley)

An account of the latest display of appalling behaviour by the downright dishonourable member for Shipley and a suggestiion for how to prevent repeats.

INTRODUCTION

The section of this post which gives it its title is largely comprised of embedded tweets about the appalling conduct of a Tory MP today.

THE TWEETS

This sequence of tweets summing up the Downright Dishonourable Member for Shipley’s latest display of contemptuous narcissism start and finish with mine, but those in the middle are from others…

 

 

 

 

My renaming of Mr Davies as the Downright Dishonourable Phil E Buster (Con, Shipley) is because he has a long and disgraceful record of such behaviour and because in Britain this kind of behaviour is known as filibustering. It is right and proper to condemn this kind of behaviour, especially in relation to a bill that is about tackling domestic violence (being put forward by Eilidh Whiteford of the SNP), but that leads on to the next question…

WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT?

Tight time limits on speaking should be set in place as a matter of urgency and they need to be enforced rigorously. I believe that as well as being arrogant and contemptuous this “tactic” is deeply antidemocratic and cowardly (if you think you can defeat the bill you should present a coherent argument against it and back yourself to win the vote). The time limits should be a proportion of the total time set aside for the bill to be discussed, and will therefore vary according to circumstances. As for the punishments, I suggest a rugby style three tier approach, making the punishment fit the offences as follows:

  1. For a first offence a ban on speaking for 1 weeks worth of parliamentary sessions (the equivalent of being sent to the sin bin).
  2. For a second offence a ban on speaking for 1 months worth of parliamentary sessions (yellow card in rugby terms)
  3. For a third offence automatic termination of parliamentary career on ground of unfitness for office, thus triggering a by-election, and of course debarring the offender from ever standing for elected office again. This is the red card equivalent.

This approach to dealing with what has become a serious problem mirrors my approach the curse of slow over rates in cricket, which I would deal with by the insertion of the following clause into the laws of the game:

The bowling side is required to deliver 30 overs per session (i.e 15 per hour) and at the end of each session if they have failed to achieve this their opponents will  be awarded penalty runs for the unbowled overs at a rate of 10 per over or double the batting side’s scoring rate, whichever is the greater.

Note the inclusion of an insurance policy to make sure that the measure is absolutely guaranteed to be properly punitive.

PICTURES

Regular visitors to this site will know that I always like to include pictures in my blog posts, so here are some:

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Kirsten, one of the people who runs the Musical Keys sessions at the scout hut playing the trombone on Saturday.
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The remaining pictures are of cigarette card lots that I imaged for James and Sons’ March auction (all taken on Tuesday).

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Filibustering

My take on dealing with filibustering, provoked by yet another disgraceful display of egocentrism on the part of Philip Davies MP.

INTRODUCTION

This post is provoked by the Downright Dishonourable member for Shipley, Philip Davies making the news yet again for talking out a bill that had cross-party support. Following on from his deliberate talking out of a bill to provide carers with free parking at hospitals, Mr Davies’ latest effort is to talk out a bill that would have made first aid training a compulsory in schools. Therefore, before sharing some pictures with you, I am going to provide my plan for stopping the practice of filibustering.

PREVENTING FILIBUSTERING

Before getting on to the ‘how’ which is the main part of this post, I am going to address the ‘why’.

Mr Davies (IMO he should be renamed Phil E Buster after his recent performances) has merely highlighted a practice which is profoundly anti-democratic and dissatisfying. The anti-democratic nature of the practice is obvious – it prevents the matter being discussed from being voted on. The dissatisfying nature of the practice is obvious in cases where the bill that has been talked to death is one you support. However, even if the bill under discussion was one I did not support I would like to see it voted on – I prefer to settle the issue fair and square rather than have it go undecided.

THE HOW

The first part of my suggested solution would be to pass a law requiring that all bills put to the house get voted on no matter what. Secondly, to prevent scum like Mr Davies from making such a law unworkable, impose limits on the amount of time for which someone is allowed to speak and back them up with severe discipline, my suggestion being:

  1. For a first offence a warning
  2. For a second offence a ban on speaking in the house for a set period (say one month)
  3. For a third offence, a compulsory by-election to enable the offenders constituents to pass judgement.

I reckon that one person losing their seat in these circumstances would be sufficient to deter all other would-be filibusterers. If you would like to see filibustering stopped, please sign and share this petition.

PICTURES

I have some pictures from in and around King’s Lynn, and also some badges that will be in our auction on December 9th (a full catalogue for our November 25th auction can be viewed here)…