Blogosphere leads the way

Having now actually read Clarke's report (pdf), instead of just the accompanying press reports and interviews, I just thought I'd congratulate myself for being the first to raise the Upper West Lothian Question which was addressed in Clarke's paper:

Where would this leave a reformed and elected House of Lords? It would presumably have to have similar arrangements

We believe that the same arrangements would have to apply to a reformed and elected Lords, but do not see this as an insuperable obstacle.

Insuperable? No. A complete pain in the arse and a waste of Parliamentary time? Yes.

And congratulations also to Britology Watch who made an observation on the territorial extent of various parts of the Draft Legislative Programme, something that was also picked up on by Clarke:

Reporting on this issue in 1999, the Commons Procedure Committee concluded that it was possible to define bills according to the countries of the Union that are affected by them. Nor has the government found this an insuperable problem: its draft legislative programme, published in July, sets out to which countries each bill is applicable.

It just goes to show, possibly, that we're not entirely wasting our time blogging, and ideas do eventually trickle down to the likes of Ken Clarke and George Young. That said, their report is still complete bollocks.

Our Kingdom has a selection of articles on this subject (one from me, one from Tom and one from Normal Mouth)