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Re: Keep Party Politics Out Of Government
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Originally Posted by Greg Pope
It is with a great deal of trepidation that I enter this thread, but here goes anyway. In my experience the power of the whips in the Commons is greatly overstated and most of what they do is about advising MPs how to vote rather than forcing them to do so against their will. They actually have very little sanctions against an MP who wants to vote against his or her party - some Labour MPs have voted against the government hundreds of times since 1997 and no action has been taken against them by the whips. In any event, on the really big issues such as Iraq no MP would change their vote because of the whips. I voted for the war because I thought it was the right thing to do in all conscience. No whip would have changed my mind one way or the other and I don't think I'm unusual in that.
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So it isn't true they have a little black book, full of all the mischief members have been up to, which they use to ever so gently encourage people to toe the party line?
Or are the people that vote against their parties goody goodies with no skeletons in the closet? 
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'If you're going to be a Kant, be the very best Kant there is my son.'
Johann Georg Kant, father of Immanuel Kant, philosopher.
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