What happened in the House of Commons tonight?

[Bookridden]

I'm struggling to understand what is going on and would be grateful is someone can explain to me in simple terms.

Why were Labour worried about the safety of MPs?

Why were the SNP unhappy?

Why were the Tories unhappy?

What's likely to happen next?

Are MPs who don't take a Pro-Palestinian stance really putting their lives at risk?

If Labour do win the next election they will also have to sit down with President Trump, are they going to roll over and let their tummy be tickled just as readily by him as by Netanyahu. History tells us probably - see Blair, Bush and the Iraq war.

This was the Lib Dem position - they were going to vote for a ceasefire, no matter whose proposal, even if they didn't feel it was ideally worded. Their thoughts being that it would be voting for a move in the right direction. That is adult politics.

Yeah, this. I'm the OP and I'm left with the feeling that perhaps all parties didn't show themselves at their best. However, this is eclipsed by the fact that people are calling for intifada and making threats against MPs who don't conform to their viewpoint. By all means vote out an MP who doesn't represent you, but let's not be blind to the threat to our democracy.

And if people are worried about the fate of the Palestinians, why not pressure Hamas to release hostages, stop firing rockets into Israel etc. That is likely to do more to bring about a ceasefire than criticising Israel which will ignore our govt anyway?

Hi I am a big politics need but the best summary I found for this was the journalist John Crace in the guardian. He is the parliamentary writer and is a very good writer his explanation is short and very judgy of all parties involved.
The disputes were between the party leaderships not aboutbGaza.
The SNP were trying to split the Labour Party in the commons probably because Labour can threaten their position in the next GE, always bear in mind that in Scotland the Tories are no threat they are less than the Lib dems here in terms of support.
The government introduced a motion so the Labour leadership couldn't to also stir trouble and because they also had a potential rebellion. Keir Starmer flexed his new nearly Prime Minister muscles and the speaker gave in.
This resulted partly in confusion, many MPs struggled with the complexity of the situation. The Tories then didn't vote for their own motion, because if they lost it would be considered a no confidence in the government vote by the commons and this would mean rhe PM should resign.
I know this is ludicrous so do many MPs. Unfortunately it is an outcome of this present zombie government. And it is not likely to happen under any government run by Keir Starmer I would say as he is a lawyer by trade. But I am not a prophet of course!

Agreed. An all round circus.

Netanyahu has murdered more than 5000 children the last few months as a response to a terror attack by Hamas which killed 36 children. Hamas being a terrorist group that Netanyahu helped prop up to destroy any hope of a two state solution (see link below). And let’s not even get bogged down with the decades of occupation, land grabbing and apartheid which Israel has inflicted on the Palestinian people which it is now trying to starve to death en mass.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/

And yet calling for the Israeli government to stop its indiscriminate bombing which has murdered literally 1000s of innocent children and permanently maimed many 1000s more and stop its war crime tactics gets you labelled a “racist” in many parts and has your thread taking down on Mumsnet

I’m pleased to say my MP is Lib Dem. She voted for a ceasefire the first time around too. They seem the only sensible ones in there at the moment.

Whilst that might not matter in practice for a symbolic ceasefire motion, legislation with real-world effects needs more scrutiny so I hope that the LibDem threshold for voting for something is a bit higher than it being "a move in the right direction".

The speaker broke with convention but he didn't break any standards according to reports this morning.

Are you sure about Labour being SNP's biggest threat? https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-party-balance The Tories are the second-largest party in the Scots Parliament.

A reminder that it’s always best to avoid sex, religion or politics!

As you say it doesn’t matter. This is a fairly rare occurrence where all parties were happy to vote for essentially the same outcome. A pause to the mass slaughter and increase in aid. How it’s worded really doesn’t mean that much at this stage. Remember that now approx %75 of U.K. public support a ceasefire and its the MPs job to represent us. That’s quite astounding.

That's the CURRENT party balance. There's going to be a big swing away from the Tories all across the UK. You could post the current party balance for England and say it all looks good for the Tories.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/scotland.html

The impact on Parliamentary procedure is pertinent. The issue involved isn't really the point; it could have been anything, although it's not surprising that it happened over something controversial and very highly charged.

I’m not even going to attempt to unpick what’s happening over there, I know it’s centuries deep. Whatever your opinion, ultimately, people should not be dying. Children should not be starving, limbs shouldn’t be being blown through other peoples houses. What is happening is beyond heartbreaking.

However, what I can talk about is the level of hatred in our country right now about it. I’ve never seen such hate and such anger against other British people has I have over this.
I’ve been all over for work lately, I’ve seen the protests in london and seen bystanders and protesters being utterly vile to each other (on both sides). I’ve been in small towns and seen lone protestors shouting vile anti semitic things. Jewish school children having to hide their religious items as they travel to school for fear of abuse. That’s just not right.

i am truly so upset by what is happening. Whatever your believe about that section of land, it’s just horrific what is happening over there and, as a result the hatred from British people to British people is frankly, scary. I cannot believe we are in that position in this country.

after what I’ve seen in the last few months I can see why the mps are worried.

All Hamas have to do to stop this, is release the hostages. It’s that simple. They are holding innocent people (that’s of course if they haven’t killed some or used some as human shields). That’s been the requirement since 7th October. But they won’t, and as a result they have caused the thousands of deaths of the prople they claim to represent. Everyone wants a cease fire, but they also want the hostages released - what’s wrong about that??

Israel has been holding hundreds of hostages for years. People detained indefinitely without charge or trial.

I am sure that the SNP leadership probably want to weaken Labour yes. Also the Scottish Parliament is not the UK Parliament so different things we are talking about. The Scots Parliament has a proportionate system so all votes count unlike the less democratic UK first past the post. Which explains why the Tories have more presence in the Scottish Parliament than have Tory Mps from Scotland in the Westminster Parliament.
I am not myself a SNP supporter nor a Tory. I vote Labour but if we had a more democratic system I would probably vote for a smaller party that represents my views. In case you were wondering if my personal politics were involved which of course they are.

Labour infighting.

Yes, this is why his own clerks warned him against doing what he did and he then had to come back to the House to apologise, almost in tears. Nothing wrong at all.

It was a Johnsonian level of disregard for the rules.

This. It's a red herring to say it all started with Hamas and the hostages on Oct 7th. Israel have been holding Palestinian hostages for years, and holding the entire Palestinian population hostage in a way by controlling their utilities.

And if Hoyle was doing something dodgy to support labour that would be a first. He's always done so much to support the government that I assumed at one point he had crossed the floor.