Commons Leader Powell Proposes Scrapping the Word ‘Bill’ in Parliament – Guido Fawkes

Commons Leader Powell Proposes Scrapping the Word ‘Bill’ in Parliament

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Commons leader Lucy Powell has given an interview to The House magazine in which the only substantial modernisation reform she manages to suggest is getting rid of the word “bill.” Ummm…

Apart from introducing call-lists for debates Powell says no to reforming the seating structure, electronic divisions et cetera but takes head on the notion that parliamentarians should understand what bills and divisions are:

“One thing that we’ve heard quite strongly is where things have got a name or are given a title that doesn’t actually speak to what it is. I think people actually don’t even understand the term ‘bill’, let alone all the myriad of different versions of that. We all get emails every day about a Ten-Minute Rule Bill. What is a Ten-Minute Rule Bill? The public don’t know that… It’s a bill that’s not actually a bill. It’s not really going anywhere – it’s a title. Or the way that we call things divisions and not just votes. Do people understand what they actually mean?”

Some in SW1 might suggest scrapping the MPs instead…