The term used in its parliamentary sense of cutting off further debate does not sound quite so innocuous in a French context, so we raised an eyebrow at Reuters’ headline Juppe Uses Guillotine to Pass Telecom Bill: story is that French Prime Minister Alain Juppe resorted to the cut-off procedure yesterday to push through the Assemble Nationale the draft bill that would partially privatize France Telecom; the opposition Socialists and Communists had tabled some 500 amendments to delay voting on the bill. The guillotine procedure, contained in article 49-3 of the French constitution, links opposition to a bill to a no-confidence motion – the bill automatically passes unless the opposition tables a no-confidence motion within 24 hours, and while the opposition parties say they will table such a motion, the bill passes if the government, as is expected, wins the motion.
