Mark Pack

Never let it be said that self-referentiality is dead in Parliament. I give you Early Day Motion 432 for 2010-11 which calls for EDMs to be reformed or abolished.

EDMs have come in for a fair degree of flack (and it’s hard to see what the David Hasselhoff And Morecambe Winter Gardens EDM really achieved). However, many of the criticisms are easily dealt with by simple reforms, such as abolishing the expensive printing of hard copies of EDMs in large quantities.

With a few such simple reforms, EDMs could be an effective, and cost-effective, part of our Parliamentary processes. On past form an EDM to change EDMs will not get that far, though with a Speaker committed to further reform of Parliamentary procedure and a new Backbench Business Committee that is finding its feet rather well, there are places from which a serious commitment for reforming Early Day Motions may yet emanate. If this EDM gives that process a nudge it will have done some good.