What did I make of the quality of the Commons Second Reading debate on the Bus Services Bill that finally took place on 1 March?
Given that my expectations were low, it just about turned out okay. It wasn’t the most spell-binding debate I’ve ever watched, nor especially well attended. That’s no surprise as once opening frontbench speeches have been made in any Second Reading debate, the Commons chamber normally empties rapidly.
I took one main thing from the debate: The robustness of the Secretary of State’s core message – that this Bill is only about the interest of the passenger.
In response to an intervention from Greg Knight, the veteran Conservative MP for East Yorkshire, the Secretary of State said: “No local area should countenance asking or pushing for change unless they have a clear plan for delivering improvements for passengers.”
I read that as political code for ‘I really don’t support franchising’.
His hands are tied insofar as Mayoral authorities are concerned, but even to these authorities the code was ‘if you do it, don’t coming running to me for help if it all starts to go wrong’.
While it was no surprise that the debate wasn’t very well attended, MPs repeatedly tell us buses are the most heavily used form of public transport, and essential for large parts of the communities they represent.
Why then was the Commons chamber so empty?
By not attending the debate MPs were sending a signal that they don’t take much interest in bus policy, despite so many of their constituents relying on buses.
One big surprise was the contribution from the newly-elected Conservative MP for Cheadle, Mary Robinson, who made clear her support for franchising in Manchester.
If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought from her speech that she was a Labour MP. Oh well, I guess politics is always full of surprises.
I will end with an observation on the winding-up speech from the buses minister, Andrew Jones. Oh dear.
When you read the text in Hansard, it doesn’t come across as too bad. But when you watch it on the parliamentary TV channel, it really is a shocker.
Hansard edits out all the pregnant pauses, the “umms”, “ahhs” and the “errs”, the shuffling of papers and all the rest. It was, I’m sorry to say, one of the worst winding-up speeches I’ve witnessed for some considerable time.
To be fair, winding up speeches are not easy. But this does not auger well for his command of the debates in the all-important committee stage, which starts on 14 March.
He has a lot of homework to do, I suggest.
Read the transcript here
