Bubb gets his "pause"!

A hugely welcome victory last night on the Lobbying Bill. The government have announced they will now pause the Bill, as I have been arguing all along. I'm delighted that Andrew Lansley and No. 10 have agreed to our proposal for a breather and a listening exercise. They are to be congratulated.

It’s been a great example of how our broad civil society can gird its loins and protect our basic rights to campaign.

Six weeks is of course a very short time, and may not be nearly long enough to produce the legislation we need. We have work to do. But looking at how far we’ve come in the last three weeks, I’m confident we can work with the Commission on Civil Society to get the Bill into better shape. We’ll persuade the Government to make significant changes, and be careful not to accept anything short of what the sector needs. Acevo will work with Andrew Lansley and his team to get this right. 

Strangely enough when I was arguing the pause with him, only just last week, he laughed. I guess he must already have been thinking this way!