Alex Salmond has been accused of making a "deeply sinister" threat to try to force out the Conservatives and install a Labour government in a post-election hung parliament using procedures that could involve no negotiations and no deal with Ed Miliband.
(Unlike Westminster, over whose rules the courts have no power, the Scottish Parliament's procedures can be reviewed by a judge and ruled out of order).Despite all this fuss, not a scrap of evidence of sleazy behaviour by any politician has emerged.
However, the issue of home rule for Ireland was the main contention, with Conservatives looking to exempt such a law from the Parliament Act procedure by means of a general exception for "constitutional" or "structural" bills.
Witness Gove's rushing of his academies bill through parliament using emergency procedures usually associated with anti-terror legislation.
Legislation to enable the creation of free schools was pushed through parliament last summer under procedures usually reserved for counter-terrorism measures.
A pipe-dream for two years, the French law gathered momentum in March this year in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack, and was put together in the French parliament under emergency procedures, drastically reducing discussion time and preventing any meaningful debate.
But a legislative overhaul under way in the last parliament to make procedures more effective has stalled.Worse, more recent legislative proposals may even make the Mafia's life easier.
New clinical trial regulations now being drafted by Parliament will tighten procedures governing trials, he says.
But as a great shouting match erupted in parliament over the procedure for electing a new speaker, I noted that the flag on the top of a tall stretch of scaffolding, erected to celebrate the head of SCAF Tantawi's birthday in October, and purporting to be the word's highest flagpole, had apparently blown off.
"Parliaments use safety procedures, such as several readings of bills, confidence votes and super-majority requirements," he says.
Secondly, when it comes to triggering the procedure, Parliament would like to see not just the Commission or a Member State able to take the initiative, but also Parliament itself.
