What is "the whip" in politics?

[Dilbertian]

What does it mean? Also "three line whip" and "losing the whip", what do these mean?

I now want a mumsnet thread:

”which MP would you like to whip 🤬; and which MP would you like to whip😉”

Three line whip - as I understand it at least - means you must attend, must vote and must vote as instructed by your party.

Say an mp really isn’t really on board with a particular policy - they might decide to abstain or just have somewhere else to be that day (this happens all the time) rather than actually vote against their party.

But if the government has something really important to get through and know it’s likely to be defeated by the opposition unless all their mps vote (say their budget or something related to Brexit) then they will make that a three line whip.

That’s such a helpful thread. Thanks so much for linking.

I think that some things are fine to ask on Mumsnet, such as this question. It is the type of thing I would have asked my parents, and not everyone has people to ask. Therefore Mumsnet is used.

I didn’t know about the origin of the three line whip, and found the explanations enlightening.

Google may provide answers, but it doesn’t provide discourse.

And with all due respect, not everyone's parents would know too, unless it's their area of interest

This thread is great.

I have a couple of questions if anyone can help.

Do the public know who the whips are?

Do party whips apply to be a whip or do you get told your a whip?

Who are the whips now?