It was a trap which is why the oppo were so relaxed and they walked right into it.
twitter.com/garius/status/1582807101105410048
John Bull
I appreciate not everyone is a massive nerd. So I'm going to attempt to explain what just happened in parliament.
Because it is BEYOND batshit levels of foot-shooting by Team Truss. /1
The opposition (repped by Ed Miliband here) called a vote on extending the fracking moratorium.
This was a trap. A really obvious one. One that had a sign on it that said "trap". A series of billboards extending a mile down the road saying "trap in one mile
It was a trap that would only work if Team Truss made it a 'three line whip' vote - i.e. you MUST vote with the government or you don't get to be a Tory anymore - and declared it a confidence vote in her government.
It could be avoided by not doing the above.
And you'd have to be REALLY stupid to make it a three line whip and confidence vote. Because the only person who likes fracking in the Tory Party is Rees-Mogg.
I presume at some point we'll find he's invested in it somehow. Like everything else he likes.
And their own voters HATE it. Fracking is a thing you do not want to be associated with a Tory MP right now.
So - to reiterate - the ABSOLUTE WORST thing you could do would be to declare it a three line whip and a confidence vote in your own government.
Team Truss immediately declared it a three line whip and a confidence vote in her government.
This meant two hours of very pissed off Tory MPs. To the point where people who would shill for satan if he had a blue rosette were standing up in the Commons and saying (to paraphrase):
"Fuck this shit. I can't believe I have to vote yes for this. Why are you making me do this"
Meanwhile Ed Miliband is just watching and being all:
YES. HAHAHA CHAOS. YOU DEMANDED IT. CHAOS I BRING.
John Bull
And then, right at the end of the debate, a junior minister stands up and says:
"Well actually people can vote how they like because this isn't a confidence vote."
And Ed Miliband, astonished, is just watching. He's all:
WHAT IS THIS. NON-MILIBAND CHAOS?!
He's loving it.
Now we have a procession of Tory MPs, who have just been shilling reluctantly for fracking, standing up and asking the minister if this is or isn't a confidence vote.
He says that's for other people to say, despite him just saying it whilst literally being a minister.
As the debate ends and voting begins, word starts to filter in that the government have bottled it. It's no longer a three-line whip. But people are voting. And Rees-Mogg is shouting. And whips are dragging people into the government lobby.
Full post-Miliband chaos is underway.
And amidst this, nobody seems to know whether the Tory Chief Whip has just resigned in disgust. Or been sacked. Or ever existed at all maybe.
We're so far beyond Miliband chaos now that we're at risk of integer overflowing back INTO Miliband chaos.
And so the results come in, and the government has won the vote.
But everyone is furious. Because still no one is entirely sure if it was a confidence vote or not.
And I think even Ed Miliband, who is rather lovely, is:
OKAY. ENOUGH CHAOS MAYBE?
Until the results breakdown. At which point it becomes clear that this most definitely was NOT a confidence vote for the simple fucking reason that
LIZ TRUSS ABSTAINED.
So she threatened her own MPs. Then didn't even vote for it herself.