A reminder

The Second Reading of the European Union (Amendment) Bill, whose purpose is to implement the Constitutional Reform Lisbon Treaty in British legislation, will be taking place this afternoon.

Timing is a little hard to judge. Defence Questions, going on at the moment,will last till about 3 but it seems that there will be at least two statements. So the debate might not start till about 5.

As far as anybody knows they will vote around 10 both on the Amendment and the Substantive Motion. Normally, there has to be a certain amount of time between the Second Reading and the Committee stage but there is a rumour going round that an agreement between the various party leaders (or, as it is usually known, "the usual channels") that the Committee of the Whole House will start its work tomorrow.

In the meantime, Bob Spink's EDM that demanded the publication of a detailed analysis of the treaty together with the protocols and declarations and an explanation of how they might affect the British constitutional structure as it exists and future legislation has been comprehensively ignored. Why am I not surprised?