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Quite what has this got to do with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's portfolio? In the days when we used to have a Lord Chancellor, this legislative area would have been the Lord Chancellor's responsibility.

We had a different version of the same rewriting of ministerial functions a few weeks ago when the government claimed that major changes in Social Services functions were 'financial' so as to argue that it was out of order for the House of Lords to interfere. Thank goodness it did interfere. When governments can claim a spurious Commons mandate on only 35-37% of the votes, long may they continue to do so.