Today was an important day in the House of Commons, seeing that very rare event, a private member’s bill passing second reading.

The bill in question was “Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Bill” which refers to ratification of the Istanbul Convention on Preventing Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The British Government agreed to ratify the treaty in 2012, but since that time has done nothing. The bill, proposed by Dr Eilidh Whiteford (SNP, Banff and Buchan), is intended to encourage them to get off their backsides and do what they promised.

Although the bill was proposed by the SNP, it was supported by Labour, the LibDems and the Greens. It has also been the subject of a major campaign by the Womens’ Equality Party. The government has also tacitly supported the bill, and did so actively today in the person of Brandon Lewis, the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, though some Conservative MPs did turn up to speak against.

Chief among them was Philip Davies (Con, Shipley) who fancies himself as the parliamentary representative of the Men’s Rights Movement. He is the chap who, whenever someone in Parliament mentions something about women, pipes up, “But what about the men, we are oppressed too!” Mr. Davies did his level best to derail the proceedings by droning on for well over an hour about how horribly men are oppressed. Thankfully he didn’t have the stamina to talk the bill out.

Getting private members bills passed is hard. The government schedules them for Fridays, which are traditionally the day on which MPs go home to their constituencies to deal with local business. Anyone wishing to speak and vote has to cancel their local business to be present. I understand that at least 100 MPs have to be present for the bill to be allowed to progress. The WEP campaign has focused primarily on persuading MPs to turn up. There was no point in hassling my MP because he’d only vote against if he was there. I’m disappointed in Ben Howlett, the Bath MP, who appears to have spent today doing constituency work. However, at least two of the Bristol MPs — Kerry McCarthy and Thangam Debbonaire — were present. Thangam had the dubious pleasure of following Philip Davies in the debate, and she did a magnificent job.

The full Hansard transcript is available here. On a quick read through I was particularly impressed with the speech by Helen Whately (Con, Faversham and Mid-Kent) who talks about her time volunteering at a homeless shelter before she became an MP:

On one of my most memorable nights doing that, I met a lady sleeping rough on the steps of a church in Brixton. As we took her to a shelter, I asked her about her circumstances. She told me that she was married but had fled her home that night because she was frightened of staying there; because of what her partner might do to her she was frightened for her life. She felt safer sleeping rough on the steps of a closed church in a dark and frightening park in Brixton than spending a night at home under her own roof.

Thankfully most MPs were impressed with this sort of testimony. The bill eventually passed its second reading by 135-2. Those voting against were the aforementioned Philip Davies and David Nuttall (Con, Bury North). The bill now has to go to the committee and report stages, and then come back for a third reading, before heading to the House of Lords where Mr. Davies will doubtless find rather more people sympathetic to his views.

There is, of course, a very long way to go yet, but today is a cause for celebration, particularly for WEP and this is something WE have made a big push on. Well done, team!