How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't

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Westminster – and make MPs How the whips actually control Westminster – and make MPs

This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. ( May 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) While the culture of the Whips’ Office has become less explicitly bullying, the fundamental nature of the operation and the extent of its influence remains nearly as strong as ever. In almost every stage of the parliamentary process, it acts to stifle debate, limit scrutiny, close down avenues of interrogation, reduce independent thought and strengthen the power of the political parties.As well as enforcement, the whips deal in intelligence. One of their chief roles is to gather information on the mood of the parliamentary party and then pass it up to the leadership, so it can assess the threat of rebellion. But information is also itself a form of enforcement. It is the whips who explain parliamentary procedure to MPs.

How Westminster Works … and Why It Doesn’t by Ian Dunt review

Those terms remain in use today. Most government legislation involves a three-line whip to ensure it goes through, but the circumstances can become even more acute than that. In 2021, for instance, Tory MP Owen Paterson was found guilty by the Committee on Standards of an “egregious case of paid advocacy” after he used his parliamentary position to promote two companies that hired him as a paid consultant. The committee recommended that he be suspended from the Commons for 30 days, but the government moved to protect him. You’re humiliated by the whips, who force you to vote on the party line day in, day out,” Rory Stewart says. “There’s barely any point reading the legislation. It becomes clear your promotion has nothing to do with expertise. It’s about loyalty and defending the indefensible. The culture in the tearoom is very gossipy and trivialising. You can’t earnestly grab someone in the corridor and try to talk seriously about a policy issue. It’s not the done thing. It’s a very unserious culture. It doesn’t reward earnestness in any way.” Whip scandalsIan Dunt (born 4 February 1982) is a British author, political journalist and broadcaster. He currently writes as a columnist for the i. [1] He previously served for many years as the Editor of politics.co.uk. He was also a host on the Remainiacs podcast. [2] [3] [4] Early life [ edit ] The parties organise little training. MPs are given no instruction in how to scrutinise or even read legislation, let alone introduce it. Most remain largely ignorant of parliamentary procedure throughout their time in Parliament, no matter how long they’re there. And this is not a failure by the political parties. It is a choice. If there is something they want, like support in a Commons vote, they make sure they get it. But it is simply not in their interests to tell MPs how Westminster works or what they’re supposed to do. Because if MPs are ignorant, they will rely on the whips to explain everything to them – to tell them where they need to be and what they need to do. The central mechanism for enforcing the compliance of MPs is the Whips’ Office – the surveillance and disciplinary system for parliamentary votes. It threatens MPs who vote against their party, rewards those who vote with it, and passes intelligence up to the leadership about any possible rebellions. MPs feel its force immediately, because it’s the Whips’ Office that allocates them their parliamentary office when they arrive: spacious penthouses at the top of Portcullis House for favoured MPs, and dark little cubbyhole basements for lowly ones. But even though the whips are less brutal than they used to be, the basic enforcement mechanism remains in place. If you rebel, you will probably write yourself off from a ministerial position, at least under the current leadership. If you insist on assessing legislation on its own terms rather than simply voting as you’re told, you will sabotage your political career. These incentives would be effective on most people, but they are particularly effective on MPs. As Ashley Weinberg’s psychological research on MPs showed, they are disproportionately likely to be motivated by authority and social recognition and to value leadership positions.

Ian Dunt - Wikipedia Ian Dunt - Wikipedia

Tim Fortescue, Tory chief whip in the 1970s, admitted in a 1995 documentary that the whips office had covered up MP scandals. “If we could get a chap out of trouble,” he said, “then he will do as we ask forever more.” The word “whip” actually refers to three things: an instruction, a person and a process. It’s the name of a document circulated to MPs on a weekly basis by the party, listing the business of the next fortnight and the expectation of when they’ll vote.The complexity of Parliament and the ignorance of its inhabitants are both part of a system of control. It is useful for the party leadership that the situation should remain this way, so it does.