Three Months After the Lords Defeated It by 1,200 Amendments, I Am Still Using the Statistic in Conversation

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

By Lowri Griffiths | BigSmokeBroke.com

The Statistic

The assisted dying bill was defeated in the House of Lords by 1,200-plus stalling amendments. I have used this statistic in conversation approximately thirty times since the defeat and I remain unable to make it feel either normal or comprehensible. The statistic does not normalise with repetition. It remains, every time I use it, the specific absurdity that it was the first time I read it. This is the correct response to 1,200 amendments. The normalisation that six prime ministers has undergone has not reached 1,200 Lords amendments. I consider this a positive sign about the specific limits of my political despair tolerance.

The Campaign for Lords Reform

The specific British political response to the Lords amendment situation is the campaign for Lords reform that has been ongoing since the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 established the Lords’ reduced power relative to the Commons. The campaign has been ongoing for over a century. The 1,200 amendments are the most recent evidence for the reform case. The reform has not occurred. The evidence accumulates. The reform continues not to occur. This is the specific British political condition of identifying problems without resolving them that the prat.uk newsletter’s ungovernable Britain piece documents with appropriate acidity.

What 70 Percent Public Support Means

The assisted dying bill is supported by approximately 70 percent of the British public, according to polling that has been consistent across multiple years and multiple polling organisations. The House of Lords has defeated it. The gap between 70 percent public support and the parliamentary outcome is the specific democratic deficit that Lords reform debates exist to address. I am at 70 percent public support for Lords reform. My dinner party is at 70 percent public support for Lords reform. The Lords are at their own level of support for Lords reform, which is lower.

The North London Conclusion

My conclusion after three months of processing 1,200 Lords amendments: the number is correct, the outcome is wrong, and the reform is necessary. These three things remain true regardless of how many times I use the statistic in conversation. Read The Daily Mash.

More: The Daily Mash.

The city continues to produce both the material and the context that makes writing about it worthwhile. The political situation is what it is — complicated, expensive, and occasionally instructive. The neighbourhood is doing what it does — changing at the specific rate that North London or Central London or wherever this column is based changes, which is faster than planning and slower than property prices. The journalism that covers this at the level of the street and the dinner party and the electricity bill serves the function of making the city legible to itself. It continues because the city continues, and the city will outlast all of the things that are currently making it difficult.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then.