Thread by @mikeysmith

For context, Christopher Chope is somewhat notorious for making very long speeches on a Friday, which push later items off the order paper.

Over the years he’s 'talked out’, or blocked by shouting ‘object’ bills that would:

• Pardon Alan Turing
• Make ‘upskirting’ a criminal offence
• Ban animals in circuses
• Exempt hospital workers from car parking fees
• Toughen laws on FGM

Sir Christopher says he objects to Private Members’ bills passing second reading ‘on the nod’ - without debate or vote - on Fridays, when there’s a hard 2.30pm cut off.

He basically objects to the concept of Fridays.

But his choice of bills to talk out have raised suspicions that it’s not his only motivating factor.

Not least because he has never, to my knowledge, lobbied to change Commons rules to prevent bills passing second reading on the nod without a debate.

Meanwhile, countless MPs have seen progressive bills, with broad - cross party - support, scuppered repeatedly by Sir Christopher and a handful of other middle aged men who repeatedly use a loophole in the rules to subvert the democratic process.