18 Comments

• Terry G 30th Aug '13 - 6:29am

  Please can we have a list of non voters, too? 90+, by my reckoning (though not all were Tory or Lib Dem).
  According to local newspaper sites, Bellingham in Norfolk, Yeo and Ruffley in Suffolk and Priti Patel in Essex all abstained.

• Geoffrey Payne 30th Aug '13 - 6:31am

  I thought Adrian Sanders voted against as well. Looks like he abstained.

• David Blake 30th Aug '13 - 6:38am

  Pity it wasn’t more.

• Caracatus 30th Aug '13 - 6:45am

  Can we have a list of the guilty Lib Dems who supported the Government. What a shambles of a motion. What a mess of a policy position. It would look awful at a Town Council for a National Parliament it is dreadful.

• Ian 30th Aug '13 - 7:13am

  @Caracatus Agree; a huge missed opportunity for the party

• John 30th Aug '13 - 8:25am

  Adrian Sanders would have voted against but he’s at a conference in South Africa with a number of other MPs, whose votes would effectively have cancelled each other out.

• Brenda Lana Smith R. af D. 30th Aug '13 - 8:42am

  I am pleased to read http://ldv.org.uk/35956  that my North Cornwall MP. Dan Rogerson MP, is listed among the rebel MPs…

• john mc 30th Aug '13 - 8:46am

  Only 9??

• lloyd harris 30th Aug '13 - 8:52am

  Hansard can from last night can be found here
  http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm130829/debtext/130829-0004.htm#13082928001472

• David Pollard 30th Aug '13 - 11:24am

  It was a very strange way of getting there, but Parliament voted the right way in the end.

• Martin B 30th Aug '13 - 12:51pm

  @Caracatus

  Have a look at Public Whip for the names of MPs that voted in favour as well as rebellions. They list every vote both in the Commons & the Lords.

  http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/divisions.php

  LibDems that voted for the govt motion were:

  Danny Alexander
  Norman Baker
  Alan Beith
  Tom Brake
  Jeremy Browne
  Malcolm Bruce
  Vincent Cable
  Menzies Campbell
  Alistair Carmichael
  Nicholas Clegg
  Edward Davey
  Lynne Featherstone
  Don Foster
  Stephen Gilbert
  Duncan Hames
  David Heath
  John Hemming
  Martin Horwood
  Simon Hughes
  Norman Lamb
  David Laws
  John Leech
  Stephen Lloyd
  Michael Moore
  Alan Reid
  Bob Russell
  Robert Smith
  Jo Swinson
  Mike Thornton
  Stephen Williams
  Simon Wright

• Joel 31st Aug '13 - 8:01am

  If one looks at the LibDems in coalition government then one shudders to think why this party exists at all. There is very little that distinguishes this leadership from the Tories and New Labour.

  I am unsure whether I will continue to be a party activist. I knock on doors and do pamphlet drops. I raised my children on Liberal values. They joined me on going to meetings and dropping pamphlets. Whether they will do the same with their children I do not know because there is very little that distinguishes this party today. It has proven to be as expedient as many in office.

  How can you vote for a strike on another country and you do not have any objectives?

  Why is effort not made, as the weapons of war are amassed to drag the reluctant parties to the negotiating table. It has always been done before. But the target is not Syria or its weapons. That is the problem. Look at Libya. Benghazi is now the head-quarters of the extremists. Yet the same elements that are opening rivers of blood in Libya, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen are our allies in Syria. Where are the Liberal values that inform our actions?

  This leadership is an utter disgrace. Our stance on Iraq was not barefooted, weed-smoking idealism. It has stood the test of time. We now have the reincarnations of Blair leading our party. I smell sulphur in the air.

• DR David Hill 31st Aug '13 - 2:54pm

  Although I have only respect for a few politicians per se, the one man who should have been prime minister in my mind is David Davis. The reason why I say this is that he is not just a highly intelligent person but possesses that elusive and importantly lacking commodity in politics today of pure old common-sense. Most politicians based upon historical facts have not this vital asset and the reason why they get things so horribly wrong time and time again. Mr. Davis’s stance on Syria is just a single pointer to his credentials as Prime Minister Stock and where he thinks like the normal man or women in the streets – that typical individual described in common law who rides the Clapham Omnibus. Therefore he has his feet firmly on the ground, not just because of his convictions towards Syria, but down to the majority of things that I have read and heard from Mr. Davis over the last decade. Indeed his background and upbringing from a council house and his parent’s relative living standards of a working-class family environment (even for a time living in a slum in Wandsworth, London before moving to a council house )have in my mind prepared him to be possibly one of the greatest Prime Ministers that this country could ever have if he was allowed to be so. Unfortunately in this respect the elitist mindset of the conservatives where one can see this clearly with the current voted-in incumbents, will in the end in my humble opinion be the road to oblivion for the Conservative Party. For Cameron even if he is re-elected come 2015, will only last for no more than two years as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. Therefore if common-sense prevails and if the British people wish to see a prime minister that is truly for the people they need not look any further than David Davis. Indeed in this respect also if the Conservative Party have any acumen at all and thoughts for their Party’s successful future that is inextricably intertwined with their own long-term good, they should look no further either to appoint a working-class boy who knows what life is all about and will deliver the goods. An achievement that has been missing for two decades now and where it is time that this changed for the British people and their families.

  Dr David Hill
  Chief Executive
  World Innovation Foundation

• David 31st Aug '13 - 3:21pm

  @David Hill: That’s just another example of all you Davids sticking together. It’s a conspiracy, no doubt!

• Margaret Williams 31st Aug '13 - 4:15pm

  Well done Roger Williams (my MP) – but why did it have to be Ed M who called a halt for reflection?

• Michael Parsons 31st Aug '13 - 9:35pm

  At least we had nine decent men and women to stand against mass hysteria and what looks suspiciousy like a repeat of the old dodgy dossier ploy – and certainly a repeat of that disaster,-.

  What happened to Dr Pugh,MP Southport, by the way?

• A Social Liberal 31st Aug '13 - 10:12pm

  Michael Parsons

  You don’t think Alan Beith is a decent person? Menzies Campbell? Lynne Featherstone? Or are you saying (which I frankly find strange) that they act indecently only on occasion but most of the time they have sound judgement?

• Simon Banks 8th Sep '13 - 7:34pm

  The poll of this site’s readers showed a majority for limited military action under strict qualifications. The discussion on the site seems to me to be risking suggesting that this is a straightforward Liberal versus anti-Liberal argument with all the reason on one side. It isn’t that simple.