A second chance for lighter evenings?
On Friday, the Daylight Saving Bill was ‘talked out’ by a couple of hostile MPs… But, it’s not over! There’s a chance to save the bill, but we need to act fast.
We might be able to get some more parliamentary time, so the supportive majority of MPs can vote it through. We just need to persuade a man named George to give it to us.
As Leader of the House, Sir George Young (to give him his proper title) decides what gets debated when. He’ll only give the bill another chance if he feels the same public pressure MPs got in the run-up to the vote. You can probably guess where this is going!
We’ve rejigged our infamous MP lobbying tool, and you can now write directly to Sir George Young, cc-ing in your MP. We don’t know exactly when he’ll make a decision but it could be as soon as tomorrow, so there’s no time to waste.
Click here to ask Sir George for more parliamentary time NOW!
Even people who don’t support the bill were appalled by the undemocratic tactics employed by a tiny minority in the Commons on Friday, and the 140-or-so MPs who rescheduled important constituency meetings to support the bill are furious.
In fact, there’s a strong sense in Westminster that Friday’s events could mark the beginning of the end for the current Private Members’ Bill system. This comment from Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw sums up the feeling pretty well:
No Private Member’s Bill in memory has enjoyed such strong all-party support and if this one can’t be given the chance of getting onto the statute book we might as well scrap the whole system of Private Members’ Bills.
There’ll be a time to decide whether we want to go down that road, but right now the clock is ticking. Together we can persuade Sir George to do the right thing, but we need to get serious numbers behind this.
We don’t want to get your hopes up too much – this is a long shot, no question. But if we pull it off, we’ll have saved the bill and shown Friday’s timewasters that they can’t put us off so easily. And if that’s not worth a try, I don’t know what is.
Let’s do it!
P.S. Massive, heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s been in touch with messages of support and encouragement over the weekend. As ever, we’re humbled and inspired by your generosity and enthusiasm. We’ll do our best to reply to everyone, but please forgive us if it takes a few days – we’re working through the backlog as fast as we can.