Peer film review – it's the House of Lords cinema

It seems that Tory and Lib Dem party managers have come up with an ingenious way of making tired peers stay late for crunch votes in the House of Lords.

Politics Home website reports that on Tuesday evening they were treated to (bribed with?) a choice of film screenings: the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, or The Queen, both suitably British and sure to delight such a patriarchal group.

These film screenings have been nicknamed ‘the Ping Pong Cinema Club’ because peers are voting on a number of bills that bounce back and forth between the Lords and the Commons.

It seems to have done the trick too: the Government won the vote to do with secret courts by 16 votes. Who knows what would have happened had they not all had 007 to kill time with.

Labour Peer Lady Basildon tweeted that she had heard rumours of the screenings before gathering photo evidence in the form of a ‘Government Events’ print out.

Interestingly, the ‘Events After Easter Recess’ section of the paper suggests a real treat is in store for Government Peers: a speech from Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey and author of Snobs (not to mention Conservative Life Peer). You can bet they’ll be sticking around that night.

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