What's a whip?

[Ariesgirl]

Well the title gives it away really. I have reached the age of 35 and still don't know what a whip is. In a political sense obviously. Will anyone enlighten me? E.g. when the leader takes the whip from an MP? Sounds like some bizarre 70s party involving keys and whips.

wikipedia definition here

and you could read "House of Cards" by ... erm, forgotten the author, for a good, fictional, account of a (wicked) whip's job.

my understanding is...a politician has to vote...he makes up his mind....

then... he tries to get in to vote.... and is whipped until he changes his mind and/or persuaded by the whip to change his mind....

(cos if he doesn't comply...he won't get his own office/own desk duckpond or expenses claim approved.)

Right . Thanks laydeez.

The Whips are MPs whose job it is to whip chivvy other MPs to parliament to vote on stuff. They are the head boys and girls of parliament.

{learnt from helping DH revise his how to be british test}

Have read the Wiki definition and I'm appalled! So MPs can't vote with their conscience about things? They have to do as they're told? (poor naive innocent that I am). In that case, if we had an Independent standing, I'd definitely vote for him/her. Where's Martin Bell when you need him? Is he still an MP?

They can rebel.

Some do, some do reguarly. But it probably isn't the way to get ahead in the big game that most MPs seem to see politics as.

Problem with Independents is lack of power. The whip thing works with a sort of horse-trading: You vote this way on this - even though I know your constituents/you feel strongly in the other direction, and we'll make sure that, eg. in the next round of spending allocations for education your area will do quite well.

Independents, bless 'em, don't have a party behind them for that sort of pressure. They tend to get left out of the game in the first past the post, big party politics we have. But that's another thread.

It's a reason why a couple of Green MPs isn't going to suddenly propel us towards a full pushing of environment politics up the agenda.

But, still, if you have a great Independent candidate, I think you should vote as you feel inclined.

And "withdrawing the whip" means expelling them as an MP?

No, we have not Independent candidate. We have (ahem) as follows:
LibDem (current MP)
Conservative
Labour (who are so hopeful of getting this seat that they didn't proofread their leaflet for errors and have a 15 year old candidate)
Green
UKIP
Mebyon Kernow
Cornish Democrats (not quite sure on the difference between the two)
The LibDem MP has been extremely popular and well thought of, but is at risk now from the Conservative or even UKIP

However that's by the by.

It means effectively banishing them from the group in Parliament. In theory, they're still in the party, but in practice, they're not. It can be done for a limited period, or indefinitely. If indefinitely, I can't imagine they stay on long as MPs if that happens. I don't think their local party would see any point in keeping them on.

Mind you, that's not necessarily the case. There are lots of career rebel, back-bench (non-Cabinet member) MPs, who just do not toe the party line. I guess they manage to organise themselves into little power-groupings.

But I think the whip is rarely withdrawn for life.

[someone else perhaps knows more about that.]

Diane Abbott's a bit of a rebel. Survived voting against the war. And she's still in there.

I'm sure there was a case in the South West recently where DC withdrew the whip from some ghastly toff who was shouting loudly about the fact that he was an MP and could therefore do what he wanted.. But I'm probably mistaken.

I heart Diane Abbott. The way she and Portillo flirt on the sofa cracks me up.