ID card vote.

[zotz]

Given that the real test is going to be the third reading, that's not such a bad start. Indeed, the New Statesman a couple of weeks ago said that the Campaign group were going to abstain on last night's vote, so opinion might have hardened since.

A point to remember is that a lot of Labour MPs abstained. If half of them decide to vote against at the third reading, then the bill falls. Oops. Actually, it'll take more than that. I was a bit mislead by publicwhip.org.uk mentioning a potential Labour turnout of over 400, when actually there are only 356 Labour MPs.

Is there a list of abstainers available anywhere online yet?

Irrelevance : walking home on Friday, I passed a house with a little ornamental well in the front garden. Instead of garden gnomes, there was a little bench with Statler and Waldorf sitting on it.

Comments

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Is there a list of abstainers available anywhere online yet?

From the wonderful PublicWhip. (q.v. TheyWorkForYou)

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2005-06-28&number=20

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Oopsie, wrong list. Click "All possible voters" for the list that includes abstentions.

[zotz]

Ben Chapman, Michael Clapham, Claire Curtis-Thomas, Frank Dobson, Bruce George, Neil Gerrard, Ian Gibson, Peter Hain, Sylvia Heal, Adam Ingram, Andrew Love, Michael Meacher, Austin Mitchell, Albert Owen, John Prescott, Dennis Skinner, Geraldine Smith, Rachel Squire, Paul Truswell, Rudi Vis.

Some of them might vote aganst, some certainly won't.

Where are Sinn Féin when we need them?

[nils.livejournal.com]

There were also a number of absent/abstaining Conservatives. 18 or so, I think...

[zotz]

18, yes. People could indeed work on them too.

Kenneth Clarke, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Roger Gale, John Gummer, William Hague, Alan Haselhurst, David Heathcoat-Amory, Daniel Kawczynski, Julian Lewis, Michael Lord, Michael Mates, George Osborne, Richard Ottaway, Nicholas Soames, Robert Walter, Nigel Waterson, Ann Widdecombe and George Young. Some of them might be persuadable.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Clarke, Lewis, Mates, Ottaway and Widdecombe are most unlikely to be persuaded, given their past voting records and comments. Of the others, Roger Gale and Alan Haselhurst are probably the best bets to work on; Gale as something of a libertarian, Haselhurst as an old-style "wet".

[zotz]

Prescott, incidentally, is abroad rather than rebelling.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

I'm AMAZED that Neil Gerrard - of all people - abstained. Likewise Gibson, Heal, Mitchell, Owen and Skinner, all of whom can be persuaded. Dobbo's abstention came as something of a surprise though, ditto Peter Hain.

[zotz]

Some of them might genuinely have been away, or they might have been keeping their powder dry for the third reading. Kate might know, of course. I'll try to remember to ask.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Shiny irrelevance! I apologise for having no useful content.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere on LJ just yesterday that Waldorf & Statler are available from B&Q.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

That was me. Yes they are. I have no idea how much. It was one of those things that tempted me for about a nanosecond, then I realised it would be funny for about the same length of time.