SOLOMON HUGHES says even electoral defeat isn’t a deterrent to right-wing MPs: pro-corporate policies might lose elections but they can be lucrative nonetheless
REPORTS of the death of the Scottish government’s National Care Service Bill are, as Mark Twain might have put it, an exaggeration.
The Scottish government announced on Thursday that it is pausing but not abandoning its Bill. It is the latest episode in what has become Holyrood’s longest-running farce.
The Bill is currently at stage two of its parliamentary progress. This involves consideration of the Bill by a parliamentary committee (in this case, the health, social care and sport committee).
Evidence to peers from medical leaders, patient safety officials and the children’s commissioner has intensified fears that the Bill’s safeguards are inadequate, writes ADAM JAMES POLLOCK
DANIEL GOVER considers the procedural complexities awaiting a Private Member’s Bill in its passage through Commons and Lords



