Parliament: More bleak house than great expectations

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 57, Issue 2, 2004, Pages

  Cowley, Philip ^a   Stuart, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84862394894     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsh026     Document Type: Review

References (28)

1. P.G. Richards, Parliament and Conscience, George Allen and Unwin, 1970, p. 179.
2. HC Debs, 6.2.03, c. 448.
3. A later EDM from Howarth, calling for a review, was signed by 220 MPs.
4. We are grateful to Daniel Boyce for this information.
5. See P. Cowley and M. Stuart, 'Parliament: More Revolts, More Reform", Parliamentary Affairs, April 2003, p. 198.
6. Discussed in I. Mclean, A. Spirling and M. Russell, 'None of the Above: The UK House of Commons Votes on Reforming the House of Lords, February 2003, Political Quarterly, July-September 2003.
7. Ibid., p. 304.
8. Because Britain Deserves Better, 1997, p. 32; Ambitions for Britain, 2001, p. 35.
9. Because Britain Deserves Better, 1997, p. 32; Ambitions for Britain, 2001, p. 35.
10. Cowley and Stuart, loc. cit., pp. 191-2.
11. The figure is normally listed as 122, since 122 Labour MPs (including tellers) voted in favour of the amendment. But one - Andy Reed - voted in both lobbies, in order to cast a deliberate abstention. He subsequently resigned from his position as PPS to Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary.
12. N. Watt, 'Ministers pile pressure on rebels', Guardian, 18.3.03.
13. See, for example, A. Grice and P. Waugh, 'Thirty dramatic hours that shook Westminster - and put Parliament back at the heart of the nation's affairs'; T. Helm and A. Sparrow, 'Buttered up in the tearoom and a caning in the head's study'; P. Wintour, 'A day for whips, knives and arm-twisting' (Independent, Daily Telegraph and Guardian, 19.3.03). Also P. Stothard, .30 Days: A Month at the Heart of Blair's War, HarperCollins, 2003, pp. 88, 94-5.
14. See, for example, A. Grice and P. Waugh, 'Thirty dramatic hours that shook Westminster - and put Parliament back at the heart of the nation's affairs'; T. Helm and A. Sparrow, 'Buttered up in the tearoom and a caning in the head's study'; P. Wintour, 'A day for whips, knives and arm-twisting' (Independent, Daily Telegraph and Guardian, 19.3.03). Also P. Stothard, .30 Days: A Month at the Heart of Blair's War, HarperCollins, 2003, pp. 88, 94-5.
15. See, for example, A. Grice and P. Waugh, 'Thirty dramatic hours that shook Westminster - and put Parliament back at the heart of the nation's affairs'; T. Helm and A. Sparrow, 'Buttered up in the tearoom and a caning in the head's study'; P. Wintour, 'A day for whips, knives and arm-twisting' (Independent, Daily Telegraph and Guardian, 19.3.03). Also P. Stothard, .30 Days: A Month at the Heart of Blair's War, HarperCollins, 2003, pp. 88, 94-5.
16. See, for example, A. Grice and P. Waugh, 'Thirty dramatic hours that shook Westminster - and put Parliament back at the heart of the nation's affairs'; T. Helm and A. Sparrow, 'Buttered up in the tearoom and a caning in the head's study'; P. Wintour, 'A day for whips, knives and arm-twisting' (Independent, Daily Telegraph and Guardian, 19.3.03). Also P. Stothard, .30 Days: A Month at the Heart of Blair's War, HarperCollins, 2003, pp. 88, 94-5.
17. A. Perkins, 'Cherie Blair ends taboo by canvassing MPs', Guardian, 19.3.03.
18. R. Ramesh (ed.), The War We Could Not Stop, Faber and Faber, 2003, p. 50.
19. Analysis of backbench behaviour in this article draws on research funded by the ESRC. For more information see: www.revolts.co.uk.
20. T. Baldwin, 'Leader leaves old friends behind', The Times, 19.3.03.
21. An earlier rebellion, during the report stage of the Local Government Bill, had seen 17 Labour MPs object to the Bain Review's linkage between reform of the fire service and the then on-going negotiations on firemen's pay.
22. The subsequent second reading voted also attracted a rebellion of 31.
23. P. Regan, 'The 1986 Shops Bill', Parliamentary Affairs, April 1990.
24. W. Miller, 'The Periphery and its Paradoxes' in H. Berrington (ed.), Britain in the Nineties: The Politics of Paradox, Frank Cass, 1998, p. 170. However, in 1950 the Conservatives won exactly half the seats in England (253 out of 506), two more than Labour's 251, and in 1964 an overall majority of seats in England (262 out of 511) compared with Labour's 246.
25. It was widely (but erroneously) reported to have happened after July's vote - when the Government had sneaked in with a majority of 35 but with 41 Scottish Labour MPs voting in the Government lobby. But there were also three Scottish Labour, nine Scottish Liberal Democrats and five SNP MPs in the other lobby. The logic that argues that it is wrong to Scottish MPs to vote with the Government also precludes them from opposing it. If all Scottish MPs had been removed from the vote, the Government would have won with a majority of eight. As the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip, Andrew Stunnell, pointed out, it 'was not the Scottish jackboot that forced foundation hospitals on us. It was New Labour', Telegraph, 12.7.03.
26. See HC Debs, 19.11.03, c. 856.
27. Of these, one had since died, one had been expelled from the party, and one had joined the Liberal Democrats. Which is the worse fate?
28. 'We will not introduce 'top-up' fees and have legislated to prevent them (Ambitions for Britain, p. 20). The Government's response is that because the fees will not come into effect until the next Parliament the manifesto commitment is being honoured.