Monk's moments: Clock-watching

In the House of Commons, there is a procedure available to back-bench members of parliament (MPs) with a bee in their bonnet called the ‘Ten Minutes Rule’. This allows them no more than ten minutes to raise any matter of their choice, but the speech is usually made to a near empty chamber, is rarely reported in the press, and is not debated nor responded to by the government. The subject is thus allowed to vanish into thin air, but the MPs have been able to let off steam, and to report back to their constituents that they have ‘raised the matter in parliament’.