house of commons versus government

[ladyjo]

in which ways can the House of Commons curb the power of the Government?

[anotheoldgit]

Only when we have a strong opposition, which I am afraid to say we no longer have.
And until that day comes we wil be moving closer each day to a dictatorship make no mistake about that.

[bigmalc]

I theory, all MP's are free to vote in whatever way they see fit so it shouldn't be hard to stop the paranoid nightmares of anotheoldgit. However, the point of having a government in the first place is for them to govern, that's why you vote, so that MP's can make decisions on your behalf. The real problem lies, not in the Houses of Parliament and the individual MP's, but in the ridiculous voting system at the General Election.
The only way that MP's can curb the power of the government is to vote against it. If things get unbearable the House can resort to a vote of no confidence which (if lost) would end the government.

[dancunian]

MPs are free to vote as they wish but the reality of course is that the Government whips have control over who gets what ministerial job, nice office, or a visit from a Minister to their constituency at election time. As a result it is often in an MPs interest to show loyalty to their party.

Might be worth using the example of how the Government lost in the first division of votes for the Religious Hatred Bill 2006 (I think last February). Opposition MPs essentially hid fooling Government Whips into a sense of security. Any sense that they would hae lost and the whips would have texted and paged every Labour MP in London.

It was not to be though and the opposition MPs appeared en masse to vote down the Government bill.

An idea they later admitted that they stole directly from The West Wing!