SIR - Isn’t it time filibustering in the House of Commons was consigned to the past?
It hardly enhances democracy when MPs opposed to, for example, a Private Members Bill, rather than using reasoned argument, choose to simply keep on talking. Thus, bills they oppose run out of time and are ‘killed off’ before any proper debate can take place.
Just recently, Labour MP Dan Jarvis put forward his ‘Child Poverty in the UK (Target for Reduction)’ Bill, calling on the Government to reintroduce a target to end child poverty.
However, a number of Conservative MPs deliberately made long speeches on the previous Bill, so there was insufficient time to discuss Mr Jarvis’s draft legislation.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that child poverty in Britain could rise by 50 per cent by 2020, and this should have been taken seriously and shown respect by MPs on all sides. Yet, filibustering - which is basically a negative, wrecking tactic - was used for partisan, political advantage to successfully shut down the issue at its earliest stage.
David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose
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