British Filibustering

There's an electoral reform referendum circling through Parliament at the moment, with the final vote currently set to occur on May 2nd. The referendum would change the current first-past-the-post electoral system, where simply the candidate with the most votes is elected. The problem with this system in the UK is that many of the MPs didn't receive more than 50% of the votes.




Instead, the AV system the referendum would put in place would allow voters to rank the candidates based on preference. If there still isn't a clear winner, they would take the voters' second preferences into account until a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes.





But today, the House of Lords members (aka, peers) are basically filibustering the bill, except the press doesn't call it that. So as I read the London Evening Standard, the paper they distribute at the Underground, I stumbled upon the article about their "tactics."

It's the best thing ever.

The lead reads: "Labour peers were accused of 'behaving like dinosaurs' today by forcing the House of Lords to debate plans to reform the voting system through the night."

Priceless.

The article goes on to say MPs were sleeping in their offices or staying up all night trying to delay the bill.

"Labour lords were unrepentant, joking over bacon and eggs this morning about winning medals for endurance and warning of more of the same.
Debate on the ninth day of committee stage was still going strong as the Standard went to press, having begun at 3.48pm yesterday.
It was fractious and bizarre in equal measure, with accusations of abuses of parliamentary procedure combined with time-consuming discussion on arcane subjects such as the UK's last living cannibal."

...What?

The article says Labour is trying to delay the bill because it also reduces the number of MPs and redraws constituency boundaries (...gerrymandering?)

"Camp beds and sheets were laid on by Lords authorities, and tea and coffee provided through the night "so peers don't expire" as one source put it.
...
But Baroness Warsi said the filibustering would turn people off politics. "You can laugh at the scenario and spirits are high but the serious part of it is this is a weird way to pass legislation. It is an abuse of the process."