Animal Sentience Bill rears its head again

So, here we are then. Despite a monstering in the Lords and near-universal condemnation across the press, the Animal Sentience Bill has reared its ugly head once more, returning to the Commons today for its Second Reading. The flagship legislation, which Mr S has covered extensively, is designed to protect helpless creatures and recognise they can feel pain by creating a new super-committee to judge the effects of government policies. Proposed amendments mean that shellfish are to be included; hapless ministers forced to defend them are not.

The government has been caught between something of a rock and a hard place on the bill: either it is too powerful and risks derailing future administrations via a slew of judicial reviews or it is too toothless to actually do anything and is therefore impotent and unnecessary.