Daniel Finkelstein seems to think so, and six Cambridge Law Professors agree with him (hat tip: Charlie Whitaker). The big question is, why haven’t I heard anything about this before?
Both the Lib Dems and Tories have opposed the Bill, but where were Labour’s “usual suspects”? And why haven’t the Lib Dems been shouting about this? To be fair, there is a whole page dedicated to the Bill on the Lib Dem website, but it is hardly prominent.
The Bill is now in the hands of the Lords. I have a lot of faith that they will make drastic improvements. The problem is, Labour will almost certainly make this another grudgematch when it comes back to the Commons, which means that the fate of the UK constitution will depend on whether Hilary Armstrong remembers her pocket calculator or not. This is no way to run a country.
Can they be forced to amend this bill – can they remove any Lords amendments – with a majority, can they get this through as it stands?
That all depends on how strongly the Labour backbenchers feel about the issue.
I’ve mentioned this Bill to a few people now and they all look faintly distressed and say something “It’s typical, isn’t it?” without seeming to grasp quite how important it is. And then the conversation moves on. Are there any demos being planned?