Standing Committee Debates

Somewhat to everyone's surprise and because the Prime Minister's alleged wish to call an early general election was thwarted due to the foot and mouth epidemic the March 2001 Budget was transposed into a Finance Bill and thereby came to be debated in the Standing Committee in the usual way. Indeed the notion of a Finance Bill having to be debated was so unexpected that the traditional green boxes in which the committee members store their papers during the debates and which have to be specially made were not prepared. However as the Committee Chairman Dr Michael Clark said the powers that be 'rallied round to produce the boxes'. Furthermore these boxes are extra special as they are red and so members would be able to take away a 'unique souvenir' at the end of the proceedings. This made...