BlackBerry-totin' MPs

The humble BlackBerry faced a barrage of opposition from MPs last week. Among the more outlandish accusations was that its introduction into the House of Commons would plunge the chamber into a state of chaos worthy of a Wild West-style shoot out.

In the end, however, the small, handheld device dodged the assault, and now MPs will be permitted to punch away on their QWERTY keyboards and send and receive messages - especially when they tire of long debates in the chamber.

By a majority of 74 to 36, the House voted in favour of a Commons Modernisation Committee recommendation that would allow electronic devices to be used in the chamber, ending an era when the only way to receive a message was to be passed a note.

The move met with considerable resistance, however, including from Brian Binley, the Conservative MP, who expressed a wish that the house could be run more like a saloon in a Western film - except that instead of guns, MPs would leave their BlackBerrys at the door.

"I wish that the Government had taken notice of that particular habit and asked all members to leave their electrical devices at the door on the basis that they cause almost as much trouble as guns in the hands of cowboys in the old west," he said during a three-and-a-half hour debate on the issue.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat president, also had reservations. "I am not a luddite or anti-technology - of course we all see the advantages of being able to receive messages - but we should not have a parliament in which people are spending all their time doing their correspondence and sending e-mails," he said, according to computing.co.uk.

The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons felt, however, that the Speaker should be able to prevent disturbances - a sentiment re-inforced by a front-bencher who said that he had once used a BlackBerry for "a good 10 minutes" without anyone noticing.

John Redwood, chairman of the Conservatives' Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, thought that the new rule might allow the Government to "stage-manage" events within the house more, because "controllers" outside could send messages to those "who cannot think of their own interventions and questions."

But Sir George Young, another Conservative, said that he did not find the change "enormously controversial" and that it "simply validated what has been the practice for some time."

MPs are often seen taking armfuls of paperwork into the House to keep themselves busy while they wait for debates.

Among the principal motivations of those agitating for change was resentment at a rule which can force MPs to wait for up to six hours on the back benches before being called to make a speech.