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Order, order.

Hello, I'm Alicia McCarthy, and this is today in Parliament from BBC Radio 4 for Friday the 24th of April,

where tempers fray in the Lords, as the bill which would have allowed terminally ill adults to get help to end their lives

fails to become law. The prolonged filibuster which they embarked upon is a constitutional

farago. But opponents of the legislation insist the bill needed more safeguards. People want a safe

bill and want the lords to do their job. Also on this programme,

after the headline grabbing appearance by Sir Ollie Robbins in front of MPs, we find out what

makes a good select committee hearing. It's important that members don't grandstand and try and

hog the limelight.

But first, the assisted dying bill has failed to become law.

The legislation would have given people in England and Wales with less than six months to live,

the right to seek medical help to end their lives.

MPs had passed the bill in the Commons,

but when it got to the Lords, peers put down more than a thousand amendments. Extra days were allocated for debate, but the Lords failed to get

through all the proposed changes, and with this parliamentary session due to end shortly, the legislation

ran out of time. The Labour peer, Lord Faulkner, who'd shepherded the

bill through the upper house, summed up his disappointment. I am despondent that this bill

so important to so many has not failed on its merits, but failed as a result of procedural wrangling.

He reckoned the public supported assisted dying and would be utterly bewildered by the way

the lords had behaved. We have failed because of a small minority. The consequences that

your lordship's house have disrespected so many of those in the public

...