Dec 09 2008
UKIP supports the government in crucial votes yesterday
One of the disappointments yesterday was the voting behaviour of the one UKIP representative in the Commons.
He voted with the government against allowing more time for the debate. He then went on to back the government in the crucial close vote which the government won by just 4 votes.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
I agree. His voting pattern was both disappointing and totally bizzare given his political leanings.
However, by far the most scandelous thing involving Bob Spink yesterday was when he was verbally and physically accosted by Tory MP Brian Binley while addressing the house. Quite how Brian wasn’t thrown out of the chamber for that i’ll never know. It was a disgrace, and one that I never thought i’d see from a Tory MP. It’s usually Labour backbenchers that behave (badly-ed) in the chamber, not Tory backbenchers. I expected better, and I hope the party are both aware of it and privately take him to task for it.
Labour MP Tom Harris also blogged about the shameful event, although also implicated Tory backbencher and Monmouth MP David Davies in the accosting. BBC Parliament’s viewing angle didn’t show him though, just a clear view of the disgraceful behaviour of Brian Binley.
Reply: The Speaker saw nothing wrong in Brian’s behaviour.
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John,
I wondered what thoughts you have, if any, on the fact that the 9 DUP MP’s in the Commons did not vote at all last evening. The majority of them are dual mandate members and were in Belfast at the NI Assembly. Surely this is bad for democracy and shows up the recent initiative of Owen Paterson and David Cameron in trying to bring Northern Ireland back into the UK mainstream with the UUP as an excellent initiative! Had those MPs been there last night then the Government would have almost certainly lost.
Reply: Indeed, their absence was noticed
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A propos nothing, do you know if Mr Spink has been promised a job after the next election heading up some pointless Quango or other?
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Perhaps we should analyse Conservative MEP’s voting records? They, supposedly representatives of a ‘eurosceptic’ party, are far more of an outrage that the commendable independent streak of the Rt Hon. Bob Spink.
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Does anyone know why this man voted in that way? I watched, in some surprise at this short speech and his manhandling.
At the coming election, I have every intention of voting UKIP for the European Parliament election. Otherwise I shall vote Conservative.
It seems to me that we simply do not fit into Europe.
And I am a democrat.
The European Parliament is in no sense a proper debating chamber.
No other party promises to get us out of something into which Mr Heath never should have put us.
Where am I going in the New Year? Australia where I shall feel quite at home. When I lived in Spain, I always felt like a foreigner - and I was.
I love Europe, but I am not a European. I’m English!
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Acorn Reply:
December 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Mike, do I take it you are emigrating, or are you just going for a visit?
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mikestallard Reply:
December 10th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
As we say in Monopoly: JUST VISITING.
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David morris Reply:
December 9th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
If Bob Spink is anything to go by you might as well give your vote to Labour as UKIP. Their raison d’etre seems to be aimed at splitting the Tory vote in marginals, which ironically will achieve exactly the opposite to their stated aims, perhaps they’re just a bunch of closet federalists and, in Mr Spink’s example, are fully signed up to Labour’s march to removing our tradional freedoms.
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TrevorsDen Reply:
December 10th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
(Personal attack on Mr Stannard-ed) Voting UKIP is just giving the game to Labour. Asinine.
Does UKIP have any leadership? Could any sane person vote for Farage?
Whats the latest (position on -ed) UKIP MEPs charged with embezling?
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mikestallard Reply:
December 11th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
With the permission of our host, I do want to give a reply here.
In national politics, of course, I will vote Conservative. I said that. I went to a UKIP meeting here in Wisbech after the last euro election and said to our UKIP Euro MEP that he was splitting the conservative vote. Nationally I really do hope the conservatives get in.
But in the sham Euro parliament, I want to support the only party which stands, quite openly, for getting us out.
I do not think it is controversial to say that politics in Europe is extremely nasty - lots of slurs and rumours. I also do not think it is controversial to say that there is a lot of corruption there among all sorts of people from all sorts of different countries.
So, no, I am not shocked at another allegation of corruption. And I certainly do not want to disparage Mr Farage any more than I want to disparage any other MEP.
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TrevorsDen Reply:
December 12th, 2008 at 11:51 am
When you sup with the devil use a long spoon.
At least we can be thankful for Bob Marshal Andrews who when asked for his view of the speaker on Radio 4’s ‘Question Time’ last Saturday was unequivocal that he no longer had confidence in him and that he should go. In the light of this I have no doubt that if at the next election he chooses to stand again, he will prove to be a far tougher nut to crack than the legions of yes-men and women who toed the Labour party line yesterday.
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UKIP only exists because of the weak line that the Tories take over EU membership.
If the Tories would just wake up and realise that the only worthwhile future for the UK is outside of the EU, then UKIP would disappear over night.
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TrevorsDen Reply:
December 10th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“then UKIP would disappear over night.” — bearing in mind that the great British public think its a pretty neat idea to vote for a man with 2 left feet in a dancing competition, I rather think it would be the Conservative vote that would disappear overnight.
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What do you expect from these UKIP and BNP idiots John? They are just following their own agenda on the back of mainstream politics. Who are you associating UKIP with? The Tories or Labour? I have often talked about the possibility of towing the British isles and Ireland, if they want, to a more geographically favorable part of the world and removing all people with ginger hair, but I’m just not taken seriously, even in the pub.
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Forget UKIP, they are a one trick pony. It is irrelevant how any MP votes in the Commons. The ZaNuLabour lobby fodder will vote the way the whip tells them. None of them is going to put a nice little earner at risk, for the sake of their conscience.
We hear this evening, that our manufacturing output is declining; there’s a surprise, not that we actually export much these days. I estimate that there are about two hundred ZaNu Acts of - our so called - Parliament, that have to be repealed to get us back to a balanced budget. About £120 billion worth of socialist spite and envy based rules and regulations, that are strangling our economy. That is not including ZaNuLabour’s attempt to become the world’s second biggest Hedge Fund, with its bank rescue prospectus.
BTW; I am impressed with my bank. They advised me to take my cash out of its vaults and invest it elsewhere, out of the UK. I cashed in a lot of my investments early in 2007, on their advice; they saw this lot coming. I now own some gold among other “basic human life support” commodities like energy and food.
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EUKIP is simply another safety valve to divide the Patriotic vote.
Look at the English democrats, Scottish, Welsh and Irish devolution, what use independance for and from England when 80% of British laws are made in Brussels.
Peopple need to wise up to what is going on, when the EU was planned, do you not think that they thought about how to deal with opposition to it.
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Bob Spink has never taken the UKIP whip, since he is the only ‘UKIP’ MP in the HoC. A party needs 2 MPs to form an official group.
Bob is very independent minded. I don’t know why he voted the way he did, but it is not the UKIP line, and one man does not maketh the party.
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I am coming to the conclusion that the Conservatives need 5 more years in opposition to get their story straight on the EU. If they have not got the cojones to make the case for taking us out, then they do not deserve to be in power. If this means a few more years of Labour in power then that is a price worth paying.
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