EDMs

As you may have guessed, I'm a bit of a parliament fan. My dissertation at university was riveting. It was on the perceptions of politicians and political journalists as to how and why parliamentary reporting has changed over the past couple of decades or so. I admit that, when there's not much on the TV, I flick over to BBC Parliament to see what's going on.

One thing that's important to keep your eye on is early day motions (EDMs) and whether your MP has signed one. These are formal motions submitted for discussion in the House of Commons although very few are actually debated. In reality, they are used for publicising a cause or point of view.

Some of them knocking around at the moment include calls for access to safe abortion as early as possible (tabled by Chris McCafferty, 59 signatures) and an extension to the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland (by Dianne Abbott, 38 signatures). The first of these refers to the HFE Bill/now Act but both still exist and are keeping the issue alive in parliament.

Both have relatively few signatures but there is another factor to consider, which means they have more support. They are controversial topics and are "matters of conscience". Therefore, they are unlikely to be signed by cabinet or shadow cabinet members, even though many may support them.

A good course of action would be to write to your MP expressing dismay if they are one of the names on the EDM.

On the Northern Ireland issue, pro-life campaigners from the province recently thanked supporters on the British mainland for their help in keeping the matter out of the HFE Bill. Dianne Abbott and her cronies have vowed to keep chipping away by introducing a private members' bill in the new session of parliament. But apparently, it's all down to when responsibility for criminal law is handed over to the Northern Ireland assembly. Then the politicians of NI will be in control of abortion law and it will no longer be partly in the hands of radical abortion MPs who have nothing to do with the province.

Veteran pro-life MP David Amess recently tabled a written question to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland asking when the responsibility will be handed over. It will be interesting to see what response he gets.