Top Up Fees

The other day I didn’t know for certain which way my MP, Joan Ryan, had voted over these fees. Well now I do. She was a teller for this vote. And why does she have this job? Because she’s a whip. So there’s no danger of my local MP ever going against Tony then is there. That’s representative politics for you.
Now I must admit that I had to away and look up what that meant, since for all I know, tellers are randomly appointed MPs. In fact when a division (or vote) is called for, each side has to put up a couple of tellers to count each side’s votes. These come from among the ranks of those supporting that side of the bill. Their votes aren’t counted, but since both the “ayes” and “noes” have two tellers, this balances out.
There are clerks as well who record who’s voted for which side, but it does seem all quite antiquated. But I’ll stop there, before I disappear off on a tangent talking about Millionaire style voting buttons and on-screen graphics to liven things up. In any case I suspect that it’s a very sociable way of doing things having two lobbies. Members can immediately see who’s voting for what – foes and allies.
Somewhere about I have a book that I bought a year or so ago that details many of the intricacies of the British parliamentary system, as I know that I should know more about how this democracy supposedly works.


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