A Week is a Long Time Part 2

Hello again :)

So after addressing the football I shall now address the main political event of the past week and as usual these days they don't make pretty reading!

There was the vote on Britain's EU membership in the commons on should we have a referendum on staying in or coming out. In the end the government won comfortably with over 400 MPs voting no but 81 eurosceptic Tory MPs defied the three line whip and rebelled breaking the previous record of 41 members rebelling on a Europe vote during Sir John Majors Premiership.

Now for those people out there who don't have a clue what a three line whip in basic terms it's when the political party's top brass demand that every single MP in that particular party vote with the Government and not rebel. Anyone who doesn't comply can be punished and if any government member rebels then they get the sack. Iain Duncan Smith the work and pensions secretary apparently threatened to resign if ever again he had to vote against his principles.

The main problem here is that there was absolutely no need for the Tory three line whip to be imposed. Labour and the Europe friendly Lib Dems had already imposed a three line whip and their number combined nearly equates to half of parliaments MPs and the other parties in the commons are not all exactly eurosceptic. The government would've easily won whatever whip was imposed so to tell people with specific beliefs that they have to vote a certain way is staggering and is not democracy at all more bordering on dictatorship

My local MP Stephen McPartland was one of the 81 who rebelled. In my local paper he spoke the words that the majority of the country is thinking.
"I believe it is wrong that people under the age of 54 have never had the opportunity to vote on the issue of issue of Europe. I believe in choice and people should be able to choose what relationship they would like with Europe"
That sums it all up in a nutshell!

For the record I'm a Conservative supporter and shall vote for them when I'm able to. I believe the austerity measures being taken are painful but necessary and were caused by Labours horrific last government, although I promise thats the only time ill ever say that because even Im bored with government members saying that nearly every day of the week. But I'm not a person who will just praise everything the government and David Cameron does just because I'm a Tory.

All party supporters should give criticism when it's due and the Prime Minister has missed a golden opportunity to adhere himself to voters by steering to giving them more of a say. Instead he packs the TV visible benches with women to try and get more women voters. Ed Miliband will probably start doing this to with his "MiliBabes". How sad can you get?

The most important fact however is that in a national newspaper survey this week it found that almost half the country wanted a referendum on Europe immediately. Perhaps it's time the politicians listen to the people who put them there more often, otherwise I fear democracy may never really be fully recognisable again.

Thanks for reading again. Just to let you know I shall soon be starting a series of articles looking at popular sports across different countries, seeing what impact they have and how do they compare to the UK, so you all have something to look forward to ;)

So until next time The Outsider is out!