18 Jan 2011

Sleepover in the Lords as AV battle continues

Just seen the duvet of a Government member in the Lords who kipped on his office sofa last night. It had been flung onto chairs, a pillow to one side. The Lords are voting now, a periodic Labour ambush to keep everyone on their toes. If they are still debating parliamentary boundaries at 2.30pm then the days business falls and they carry on with boundaries.

Labour has been operating a roster of speakers, quite a lot of them stay in the chamber listening to the time-filling verbiage. The Tories organised cruise ship style lectures from Julian Fellowes and Seb Coe to keep their campers happy.

David Cameron visited the Lords around 9pm to rally the troops. Ed Miliband paid his own visit to cheer his lads on last night too. Neither side is showing any signs of backing down and this bizarre test of wills looks like carrying on for some time yet.

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