Ayes: 310 Noes: 277 Commons overturn the Lords' amendment on the Identity Cards Bill 2005
The House of Commons voted on the motion to disagree with the Lords' amendments to the Identity Cards Bill, This would have broken the Government's sneaky automatic link between Passport applications or renewals and being forced to register on the National Identity Register, in the initial, so called voluntary phase of the Identity Cards scheme:
After having to get the Serjeant at Arms to "investigate the delay in the Ayes lobby" , the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons announced:
Ayes: 310 Noes: 277 i.e. a majority of 33
This means that the House of Lords will now consider this rejection of their one remaining amendment again this Wednesday 15th March.
Will this lead to a late night sitting on Wednesday night / Thursday morning, as the strange game of Parliamentary ping pong between the two Houses of Parliament goes through the motions ? Or, will the commons consider it all again on Thursday ?
It was noticable that only about 50 MPs, mostly on the Opposition side, were actually present during this debate in the Chamber of the House of Commons.
Is this really the best way that such detailed and far reaching policies are decided upon in the 21st Century ?
Perhaps it is now time to change the quorum for the the House of Commons to at least one third or half of the number of elected MPs. Then the "lobby fodder" (both Government and Opposition) might actually have to read or hear the detail of the legislation which they are rubber stamping, and might take a more rational view of it.