So, the SNP has “more cynicism in its veins than it has the milk of human kindness”, according to Andrew Rawnsley (“If this tawdry affair ends with a red card for the Commons ref Sir Lindsay Hoyle, it will not reflect well on our MPs”, Comment). Has it occurred to him that not everything the SNP does is designed solely to embarrass the Labour party? There are huge numbers of people who want their representatives to express an unequivocal call for an immediate end to the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza. The fact that they include many MPs in the Labour party (as well as, I venture to suggest, most of the “cynical” SNP) was the cause of the turmoil in parliament on 21 February, as Labour leaders manipulated a weak speaker to ensure those MPs would be denied that opportunity.
The clerk of the House of Commons warned Lindsay Hoyle that accepting Labour’s amendment and allowing it to be voted on first was likely to prevent the SNP motion from being considered, despite the fact that [it] was one of only three days in the year when the SNP is supposedly permitted to move a motion. The speaker allowed the Labour party to highjack the SNP opposition day and in the ensuing turmoil, and under the inept management of the deputy speaker, the Labour amendment was passed without a division.
