This week

Borders Bill Report stage was the main activity in the last week. Apart from the debate on the floor of the House on Wednesday, there were several meetings offline with the Government and the Conservative opposition. With the Tories, we (the LibDems) agreed to vote on transitional protection for some migrants already in the system when the citizenship clauses come into effect, but there are still flaws that will have to be addressed in the Commons. We didn't get as far as the concessions on minors and British National (Overseas) citizens, already agreed with the Government, and these will now be dealt with next Wednesday, together with some further improvements we have now suggested. Other controversial citizenship debates will be on the our proposal that the rights to citizenship of the Chagos Islanders and their children should be restored to what they would have been if they hadn't been kicked out of their homeland by our Government in 1969 to make way for an American base, and our attempt to delete the good character test the Government want to impose of 85 year old Hong Kong war wives or widows who apply for British citizenship. There may only be one eligible person still alive, which makes it all the more ridiculous.

One more ping-pong game with JW last weekend to be aded to the score: one all, making the cumulative total 98-92.