More wibbling about political morality
May. 10th, 2005 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetFifty years ago, a significant back bench rebellion or a failure within a minister's department, even one over which s/he had no control would provoke a resignation. As recently as the 1980s, Peter Carrington resigned over the Argentine invasion of the Falklands. Now the only thing ministers resign for is embarrassing the Prime Minister usually by doing something trivially foolish like going to a strip club.
Now it seems the tendency is spreading to confidence votes. If the Canadian government is to be believed merely losing a vote on an amendment to instruct a committee to call on the government to resign is not a confidence issue. This may technically be true but it's surely a quibble. (note to non-Canadians, the Rules of Procedure in the Canadian Parliament make it very difficult for the opposition to introduce an unequivocal Motion of Non Confidence, so as long as the Government doesn't propose a Budget it is fairly safe). I can't see how the Government can possibly carry on if they lose tonight's vote. I wonder if Adrienne is going to pull a Gough on us?
Now it seems the tendency is spreading to confidence votes. If the Canadian government is to be believed merely losing a vote on an amendment to instruct a committee to call on the government to resign is not a confidence issue. This may technically be true but it's surely a quibble. (note to non-Canadians, the Rules of Procedure in the Canadian Parliament make it very difficult for the opposition to introduce an unequivocal Motion of Non Confidence, so as long as the Government doesn't propose a Budget it is fairly safe). I can't see how the Government can possibly carry on if they lose tonight's vote. I wonder if Adrienne is going to pull a Gough on us?
