An early day motion (EDM), in the Westminster system, is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by Members of Parliament for debate "on an early day" (namely, an unspecified date in the future). EDMs may not be signed by government ministers, Parliamentary Private Secretaries or the Speaker of the House of Commons and very few are debated on the floor of the Chamber of the House. EDMs remain open for signature for the duration of the parliamentary session.
EDMs can be tabled on matters ranging from trivial or humorous topics to those of great importance. The censure motion by which the Labour Government of James Callaghan was ejected had its origin in an early day motion (no. 351 of 1978–79), put down on March 22, 1979, by Margaret Thatcher.
MPs may ensure the text of an EDM is printed in Hansard by mentioning it by number in questions to the Leader of the House of Commons after the Business Statement (normally on a Thursday when the house is in session).
Examples of trivial issues covered include pigeon-bombs: an EDM was tabled in the 2003–04 session of the UK Parliament by Tony Banks, which concerns itself with a disclosure by MI5 that it had proposed using pigeons as flying bombs during World War II. The motion condemned the proposal, describing humans as "obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal", and proposed that the House "looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the Earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again". It was signed by only two other MPs (Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell).
EDMs tabled on serious topics have included one demanding the release of Nelson Mandela when he was incarcerated in apartheid South Africa, and one calling for a consultation on the fingerprinting of children in schools without parental permission. Shortly after the 2005 general election, 412 of the 646 MPs signed EDM 178 calling for a Climate Change Bill; only three other early day motions had ever been signed by more than 400 MPs.
Famous quotes containing the words early day, early, day and/or motion:
“In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
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—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“[T]hat moment of evening when the light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of day and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental liberty. It is then that the plight of being alive becomes attenuated to its least possible dimensions.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“It is the fixed that horrifies us, the fixed that assails us with the tremendous force of mindlessness. The fixed is a Mason jar, and we can’t beat it open. ...The fixed is a world without fire--dead flint, dead tinder, and nowhere a spark. It is motion without direction, force without power, the aimless procession of caterpillars round the rim of a vase, and I hate it because at any moment I myself might step to that charmed and glistening thread.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)