Thursday 16 May 2013

Division Lists

Of course there are going to be joint candidates of the Conservative and another party in 2015, Nadine. But that other party is not UKIP. It has always been inconceivable that Conservative candidates could be put up against members of the present Government. Such Ministers comprise a very high proportion of Lib Dem MPs.

"We'd never stand for it, blah blah blah." Yes, you would. You know that you would. Everyone else knows that you would. You are the Tories. You do as you are told. That is what makes you the Tories. UKIP is turning out exactly the same way. Well, of course it is.

What's that, you say? Look at last night's "rebellion"? You can't rebel on a free vote. The fact that there was one indicated that Cameron did not take the potential "rebels" with the slightest seriousness. Nor will he ever do so. And they won't mind. They are the Tories. They do as they are told. That is what makes them the Tories.

Even the list of Labour's few, but ostensibly real, rebels is interesting as a cross-section of the Parliamentary Labour Party, such as does not simply present itself by accident. When that happens, as it also did over House of Lords abolition, then it has at least partly been organised by the Whips in order to send signals in various directions.

The travails of the Conservative Party are good fun to watch. But they have absolutely nothing to do with serious politics. As distinct from a few individual members, the Conservative Party itself now has absolutely nothing to do with serious politics.

Next up, James Wharton's Private Members' Bill, his desperate attempt to hold on to Stockton South, which he was in any case bound to lose for reasons of which he and his party seem sincerely to be oblivious.

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