The Troubles Bill Is Not Dying. The Battle Is Simply Moving.
Delay to Committee Stage does not signal collapse. It shifts the contest from parliamentary numbers to political momentum, to regroup, organise and shape the debate.
Reports suggest Committee Stage of the Troubles Bill may not take place before September.
Some see this as evidence the legislation is in trouble. Others believe it creates an opportunity for further scrutiny and engagement.
Salus Archive has published a Briefing Note examining what a delay would actually mean, who would benefit from the additional time, and why delay should not automatically be equated with defeat.
Read the Briefing Note here: https://salusarchive.com/bn-0005-delay-discussion/
The real threat came from Hermer, Powell, Starmer, and to a lesser extent, Benn and Sandher-Jones. I think the leadership turmoil and the resignations of Healey and Carns have seen a sea-change. The latter, no longer a newby, has now gone on the record three times in the last 72-hours denouncing the Bill as not fit for purpose. That matters. Secondly, most of the big dailies continue to provide regular and consistently supportive coverage – and partly because of this more of the natives on the street are getting restless, and hopefully numbers will grow. Thirdly, the Bill again has to go to Committee stage in the HoC, then the Report Stage and Third Reading. Then the HoL. Then Royal Assent. Meantime, hats off to the guys out there lobbying, and SASRA and Sidley Austin continue to jump in with some outstanding creativity by throwing spanners in the works. And no doubt a certain patron is receiving hints that his old man should not give Royal Assent to this iniquitous Bill if it ever gets to the palace. True, the parliamentary arithmetic is a prob but as far as it goes, take the win – and maintain pressure, not least through the involuntary orchestration of the press and grass-roots-protest to turn voters against MPs who support the Bill.
Hope nobody’s fooled by Cairns’s “shaping operations “ . Why when he had the chance to vote against the Troubles Bill did he choose sit on the fence ?