In case you were wondering how fucked British politics currently is

[andrewducker]

(For those not au-fait with British politics, a three-line whip means "You have to vote for this, or you are in massive trouble with the Prime Minister, and you may be thrown out of the party".

And the government whip is a person who makes sure that members of the party do what they're told.

Theresa May has lost _all_ control of her party.

Comments

[skington]

To be fair, there are reports that the whipping was so chaotic that even Cabinet ministers didn't know what the whip was.

[zz]

i'm picturing a bdsm club night as devised by hieronymus bosch.

but at least that would be entertaining, unlike parliament.

[movingfinger]

I expect that the first thing to go completely out of stock in the UK post-Brexit will be popcorn.

[wildeabandon]

I've just seen it pointed out elsewhere that Freer's abstention was part of a pairing arrangement. The rest of the cabinet though...

[redbird]

Are you sure we haven't fallen into a badly plotted movie with key pieces of the screenplay missing?

[jducoeur]

Far as I can tell (from the other side of the pond, and I'd be interested to know if I'm misinterpreting), May lost control months ago -- certainly she's been shaky since the election. The only reasons she stays in charge are:

-- The Conservatives are bound by party rules to stick with her for the rest of the year,
-- They can't agree on who they would want to replace her anyway, and
-- The only thing they *do* agree on is Not Corbyn. (So not another general election, so no vote of no-confidence.)

So basically, the whip is now basically a sham, since May can't actually *do* anything about it -- she needs the backbenchers more than they need her...