Tag: Naomi Long

APNI, Blogging, Equal Marriage, gay, LGBT, Lib Dems, London, politics2 Comments

Disappointed with Tim Farron or Naomi Long? I’m not…

Michael McFarland Campbell

Featured on Liberal Democrat VoicePortcullisCommons

Following this afternoon’s vote in the debate on the third reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, Christopher Lovell has expressed his disappointment at Tim Farron’s “abstention” today. It seems that Mr Lovell who lives in Leeds, not in Tim’s constituency, feels that because there is no vote recorded by Tim Farron in today’s debate, Tim abstained. I counter that this is not true. Tim did in fact, quite clearly not vote. It has been suggested by Erskine May that there is a procedure in Parliament to register an abstention: voting in both lobbies (Erskine May, Parliamentary Practice, 23rd edition, 2004, p412).

A House of Commons Briefing Paper, Divisions in the House of Commons, SN/PC/06401 states

If fewer than 40 Members, including the Speaker and the tellers, participate in a division, it does not meet the quorum required. The House then moves on to the next business, and the subject of the division is postponed until the next sitting day. Members who wish to defeat a particular item of business may engineer a division and then stay out of the lobbies, as they can thus render the division inquorate. Continue reading “Disappointed with Tim Farron or Naomi Long? I’m not…”

APNI, Armagh, Belfast, Blogging, DUP, Media, news, Northern Ireland life, politics3 Comments

UFOs observed in Queen’s Quarter

Michael McFarland Campbell

Updated on 13 March 2011 – thanks to Conor Prendergast

Last night, whilst most of Northern Ireland’s political bloggers were finding out about the stars of the Slugger Awards in the Cathedral Quarter of the city, some 50 or 60 people were observing UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), aliens, planets, and stars in the Queen’s Quarter.

There was, however, some connexion between what was happening in Hill Street and in Elmwood Avenue. Three of the four of us that had been involved with the Hammering Out of the Slugger Awards were actually in one location and not the other. Guess which three and in which location we were to be found. Continue reading “UFOs observed in Queen’s Quarter”