Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Two and a half hours. To the Speaker of the House of Commons, it may have seemed two and a half years. The Speaker got to his feet and said very politely to him, ““Mr Healy, for quite some time now I have been trying to associate your argument with the matter before the House””. Healy said: ““Mr Speaker, sir, I apologise profusely. In which case, I have no alternative but to repeat the whole of my remarks””. Nothing like that has happened in this place, and I certainly, apologia pro vita mea, et the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Swynnerton, plead that we did not come within a thousand miles of doing that.