A spanner in the works for Devonwall Bill?

Labour peers inflicted a four-vote defeat on the Devonwall Bill last night, over the timing of the proposed referendum on the Alternative Vote system. The amendment carried in the Lords means the referendum could be held as late as October 2011, rather than 5th May as the government wants. The Bill must now return to the House of Commons where a whipped government vote will send it back to the Lords again: classic ping-pong. Conservative and Lib Dem peers see this as irritating and inconvenient, rather than fatal - the prospect looms of some very late night Parliamentary sittings in the run-up to Christmas.