Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

PMQs saw the return of Hague. Still great at this - but it never carried out to the country or upped the Tory vote. Blair was fizzing over the coming debate in the afternoon - a debate on the Terror Laws coming back from the Lords – who had amended the original Bill to take out the offence of 'glorification' and several others.

Tony was in a right strop - and posturing - and over-doing it. He always seems to believe that if he appears to be passionate enough - body and soul Blair stake your life on it - somehow it makes it right.

I was leading for the Lib Dems on the second string of amendments - where I was trying to persuade the Government to take out the bit about 'in the opinion of a constable'. The Government want to leave it to a constable to decide whether material is 'unlawfully terrorist related' and should therefore be taken off the net by the Internet Service Provider'.

Scuse - me! We wanted judicial oversight to that decision. Police constables are not trained to make such judgements - and a police officer's opinion should not be the arbiter of the terror laws. Anyway - we lost the lot. Depressing once again.

The only light-hearted moment was more on yesterday’s comment about 'gnawing on vitals' - Stephen Pound came over and sat next to us and the story had got back to him. He took it in good humour!

I must watch what I say under my breath. I must watch what I say under my breath. I must watch what I say under my breath. I must watch what I say under my breath. I must watch what I say under my breath. I must watch what I say under my breath.

Evening drinks with journos for Chris Huhne's campaign. Chris himself had gone to Cambridge for a hustings. But lots of journos turned up and the vibes are pretty good - but no idea what the 'armchair' members are likely to do. Find I am being interviewed by Recess Monkey and Guido Fawkes (not their real names!!) - cannot imagine what will be up on their website. It's called a pub-cast (as opposed to podcast I assume). Lively duo - but left a recorder running for a very long time in a pub!

Labels: pmqs, tony blair