From
“Caroline Lucas reveals 10 things no one tells you before you first enter Parliament”
Whips are all-powerful
Another shock was to see how the powers of parliamentary scrutiny are so poorly exercised. Membership of the ad hoc ‘bill committees’ set up to go through draft legislation line by line is one of the best opportunities to have direct influence over future laws. That’s why the whips generally try to keep people with too much expertise or independence of mind off these committees. Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes and a former GP, tells of her enthusiasm to sit on the Health and Social Care bill committee. Instead, the whips told her to sit on a committee examining double taxation in the Cayman Islands. When she protested that she knew nothing of the subject, the whips replied that was all to the good: all they wanted her to do was to vote the right way at the right time.”
East Devon Watch 