Another update…

We’re voting now on a closure motion on the second group of amendments. That’s a motion to stop debating them. The Deputy Speaker was asked to grant a vote on closure about half an hour ago, but declined and allowed arch filibusterer David Nuttall to speak.

After the result of the closure vote – which is taking ages – we vote on the actual amendments, and Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, has said that if the SNP MPs whose amendment leads the group don’t push for a vote, then he’s going to push one of his amendments – which means another 15 minutes wasted.

The SNP, to be fair, have been quite reasonable. They oppose the Daylight Saving Bill and have made their concerns known in the debate, but they haven’t indulged in time-wasting. This is partly, I think, because SNP MP Pete Wishart (formerly of Runrig and now keyboard player in parliament’s MP4) is an avid supporter of the Live Music Bill and doesn’t want to delay getting to it. It looks unlikely though. We’ve got one more group of amendments to get through on this Bill, and Third Reading, and the session ends at 2.30pm.

MPs are very angry about this. More than 100 of them have given up their constituency Fridays to be here and get the Daylight Saving Bill and the Live Music Bill through, and a handful of the usual suspects have wrecked it. It’s no way to do things.

PS I’ve missed one thing. At the end of the session all the names of the remaining Bills are read out. If no-one shouts “object” then the Bill can proceed. Usually someone – either a Government whip assigned to the job or someone like Chope – always shouts “object”. Given that there’s cross-party support for the Live Music Bill and I don’t think even the usual suspects have a problem with it, then there’s a chance it will make it.