2.40pm GMT Lunchtime summary Norman Lamb, the health minister, has announced that the government is going to rewrite controversial regulations implementing the Health Act to counter fears that they would promote wholesale privatisation.
It also allows the Scottish authorities to make discretionary payments in any area of welfare, and to extend the vote in the next election to 16 and 17-year-olds — something that proved controversial when implemented for the referendum.
Under a controversial deal implemented on March 20, the dangerous but direct illegal sea path to Europe has essentially been closed, and people found journeying across the Aegean Sea are to be returned to Turkey.
The opposition will take full advantage of the political cudgel handed to it; the resulting controversy may further sap the government's will to implement controversial reforms.
The last couple of years have been tough, with a funding freeze in real terms, controversial reforms to implement, and, of course, all the fallout from scandalous lapses in quality of care, in particular from the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
But less than five months on, the political mood towards asylum seekers has reversed as countries across Europe seek to restrict the number of arrivals and implement controversial proposals to make them "pay for their stay".
"We developed CryptoVoter to change that by giving bitcoin holders a public voice in the development debates and provide the mandate developers need to implement controversial changes.
More broadly, the government has pressed ahead with controversial plans to implement a single internet gateway that would simplify online censorship.
"We were counting on the Parti Québécois," Asselin explains, citing the party's controversial efforts to implement a secular Charter of Values as a positive endeavour.
But with Republican Gov. Jan Brewer now in power and apparently willing to implement controversial tactics to combat illegal immigration, Harper has renewed hopes for his measure.
