(From this week's Plain English E-mail:)

As you may know, the Government used the Parliament Act this week to bring the Hunting Bill into law. (The Parliament Act allows the House of Commons to override the decisions of the House of Lords in certain circumstances.) The complicated back-and-forth process of suggested amendments to the bill ended in a particularly memorable exchange in the Commons.

Mr Speaker: I have to inform the House that a message has been brought from the Lords as follows:

"The Lords insist on their amendments to the Hunting Bill, to which the Commons have insisted on their disagreement, for which insistence they assign their reasons. They insist on their amendments to which the Commons have disagreed, for which insistence they assign their reasons, and they disagree to the amendment proposed by the Commons in lieu of the Lords amendments, for which disagreement they assign their reasons."

Honourable Members (shouting): Explain.

Mr Speaker: I read these messages; I don't understand them.

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