Two bills thrown out

While the main focus of the night was having the Raise the Alcohol Purchase Age to 20 bill thrown out, immediately prior to that was the Reduce the Number of MPs to 100 Bill which was also thrown out.

Now while it is very much MPs who decide for themselves how to vote, one can have varying degress of influence with submissions and lobbying. So having put in a written and oral submission against the Number of MPs bill (which was quoted quite often by the Select Committee in their report) and also been involved in lobbying on the Alcohol bill, it’s nice to see outcomes which align with your efforts. It makes putting in the time very worthwhile.

What I am especially proud about with these two bills specifically, is that they were both supported in polls by a large majority of the public. Yes, I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but let me explain. It’s relatively easy to defeat an unpopular bill, but to defeat bills which on the surface has widespread public support means that the quality of your arguments has to be much much stronger.