The Forums of Glennain

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I beg to introduce the following Resolution for the consideration of the House.

During the process of returning the Parliament to operation many of provisions of the previous standing orders were left out for reasons of expedience. Now that the Parliament is once again operating smoothly it is time to return some of those provisions that were left out.

Be it the will of this house that the Standing Orders are amended with these additions:

Quote:

Section 7: Recess

1. The King, or the presiding officer, may call a recess of not more than 2 calendar days at any time. Such a recess will suspend all discussion and divisions, which shall resume at the end of the recess.

2. The members may put forth a resolution to call a recess of not more than 5 calendar days. Such a recess will suspend all discussion and divisions, which shall resume at the end of the recess.

3. At no time shall the house recess for more than 7 calendar days.

Those who are familiar with the various versions of the Standing Orders will note that these orders are very similar to ones in the previous Standing Orders. The differences being the addition of the presiding officer in addition to the king, who no longer participates in Parliament except in the most ceremonial of ways and the change from "business" days to "calendar" days.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I must voice my concern about this proposed amendment. I do not like the idea of the presiding officer being able to halt all divisions and discussions in Parliament on a whim. There needs to be some type of limit.

In this addition to the Standing Orders it only outlines we may not have a recess of "more than 5 calender days" and "more than 7 calender days". Does this mean you cannot have more than 7 or 5 days of recess in a row, year, month? This needs to be clear because the presiding officer could argue it is "7 or 5 days in a week" which would leave us with hardly and time in session. Therefore I propose the following amendment:

Quote:Section 7: Recess

1. The King, or the presiding officer, may call a recess of not more than two calendar days at any time. If the presiding officer moves for a recess, the motion must be approved by a simple majority of voters. Such a recess will suspend all discussion and divisions, which shall resume at the end of the recess.

2. The members may put forth a resolution to call a recess of not more than five consecutive calendar days. Such a recess will suspend all discussion and divisions, which shall resume at the end of the recess.

3. At no time shall the house recess for more than seven calendar days in the course of one month.

This will allow for a limited use of the power to call a recess by both the King/Presiding Officer and the MPs. Again, we should remember that recesses should not be used constantly anyway.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I accept this friendly amendment, with a two word change "move for" in place of "call":

Quote:Section 7: Recess

1. The King, or the presiding officer, may move for a recess of not more than two calendar days at any time. If the presiding officer moves for a recess, the motion must be approved by a simple majority of voters. Such a recess will suspend all discussion and divisions, which shall resume at the end of the recess.

2. The members may put forth a resolution to call a recess of not more than five consecutive calendar days. Such a recess will suspend all discussion and divisions, which shall resume at the end of the recess.

3. At no time shall the house recess for more than seven calendar days in the course of one month.

God save the King

My Lords and Gentlemen, the Question is that the Resolution do now pass. May all that are of that opinion say Content; to the contrary, Not Content.

Content.

Content.

Content.

Not content

Content

My Lords and Gentlemen,

The contents are four.
The not-contents are one.

The Contents have it.