Data retention question

[Roland Perry]

In article <53C66DB4.5090504 at pmsommer.com>, Peter Sommer 
<peter at pmsommer.com> writes

>What was interesting is that most of the time there were about 40-50 
>MPs on the benches in the House,  yet the number of voters was 400 +

I was in a committee room regarding a completely different issue 
[listening to a response from the Chief Executive of the CPS to a report 
that's taken a couple of years to write], and the MP chairing the 
meeting excused herself to go and vote. And as always happens, didn't 
return. This happens all the time, it's not a criticism of the 
individual.

Overall it might be much better if MPs who were "on site" (as strictly 
defined as you like, I was in the main Palace not even Portcullis House) 
were able to vote on such things without having to abandon whatever 
other important business they were involved in at the time. They do 
multitask, actually.

This is also why people attempting to mock the Parliamentary system by 
posting photos of a handful of members in the chamber are attempting to 
leverage a falsehood. MPs can't be in several places at once, and 
hopping from meeting to another is simply par for the course.

I would not have wanted the very long term meeting I was attending to 
have been less effective simply because the MPs present had been 
prevented from attending by very short term issues like DRIP, or 
relatively short term issues such as the committee stage of the Serious 
Crime Bill happening elsewhere yesterday afternoon.

That's a road to no useful progress being made on anything.
-- 
Roland Perry