Open the box - or merely take the money?

Tweet

 

There are, of course, some MPs whose actions are based, at all times, on a clear set of principles to which they adhere. Then there is another group, probably larger, who set out to do that, but find it difficult at times. Sometimes principles can clash, and sometimes the pressure of the whips can be just too great. Then there are Tories. That’s not to argue that all Tories are completely free of any sense of principle (although some clearly are – see, for example, Johnson, B.). It’s more that they either adopt a flexible (they would probably prefer the word pragmatic, but that’s just euphemism) approach to principles, or else follow the Marxian (Groucho) approach of having alternative sets of principles for different situations and occasions.

This tendency was on display yesterday, as parliament discussed the Illegal Migration Bill, when the likes of Theresa May and IDS (which really should stand for Irritable Duncan Syndrome, but disappointingly does not) took their principled stand on modern slavery out of the box where it is normally kept, gave it a good polish, and showed it to anyone who was interested (spoiler: not a large number) in the Chamber of the House of Commons. The government was very wrong, they put on record in Hansard so as to be able to refer to their own wise words when it's time to write their memoirs, not to exclude victims of modern slavery from the planned more-or-less automatic flights to central Africa. However, by the time it came to a vote on the issue they had carefully packed up the principle and put it back in its usual box whilst they sat on their hands and allowed the legislation to pass. It turns out that the principle they had so proudly been showing around the Commons was trumped by the Marxian alternative principle of not embarrassing a Tory government, using a vague form of words about further discussions and consultations to try and paper over the huge gulf between what they said and what they then proceeded to do. Still, I understand that it’s a very nice box, sufficiently solid and robust to betray no indication of its content until those rare moments when it is temporarily opened.