Labour MP votes sensibly

On Thursday I blogged about my most recent letter to my MP:

Dear Mr Smith,

When I wrote to you in March, you replied that you are "sympathetic in principle to our membership of the EU being subject to a further referendum at some point, given in particular it is now so long since the original one on the Common Market, and so much having changed since then".

I see that you have not yet signed the People's Pledge.

...

How do you intend to vote on Monday?

The proposed referendum question seems perfectly reasonable to me, and long overdue.

I was delighted to receive the following reply yesterday:

Thanks for this. I see I got your name wrong in our previous email exchange; please accept my apologies for that.

I voted this evening in favour of a referendum.

Best wishes,

Andrew Smith MP

And indeed, the BBC's coverage shows that Mr Smith was one of only 19 Labour MPs to put country and constituents before party:


Meanwhile, David Cameron wins the PR-man prize for the boldest truth inversion of 2011:

Some Conservative MPs were annoyed that the party imposed a three-line whip on a backbench motion.

Asked whether he regretted the order - which meant any Conservative MP who voted against the government would be expected to resign from government jobs - he said: "No I don't, in politics you have to try to confront the big issues, rather than try to sweep them under the carpet and that's what we did yesterday."

So by refusing to allow the people a say on the EU, Cameron claims he is not sweeping a big issue under the carpet. Amazing.