ARTICLE FOR WORCESTER NEWS FOR 3 APRIL 2009
FROM DR RICHARD TAYLOR

As often happens to back bench MPs, time during a debate is insufficient and not all get called to speak. 
This happened to me to my frustration and disappointment during 
the debate on the need for an inquiry into the Iraq war. 

I was going to tell the House the following points:

1. My agreement with all those MPs who had said the point of an inquiry must be to investigate how the House of Commons got its decision to go to war so disastrously wrong on 18.3.03.
   
2. The debate on that day awoke my interest into rebellions by whipped Government MPs and the whipping process.
   
3. The atmosphere in the ‘No’ lobby was electric. MPs by strange convention do not normally shake hands but in this lobby everyone was shaking hands as if they needed the support from physical contact with others who had made the same crucial decision, often for the first time, to rebel against the Government.
   
4. Since then I have kept records of some of the rebellions that have occurred and realise that at least 40 of the Labour rebels on that day could not have been described as potential rebels most never having rebelled before.
   
5. What was it that made these normally compliant MPs rebel then? Was it the severity of the issue, pressure from their constituents or something else? 
   It is clear from some of the contributions to that debate that it was not because of conscientious objections to warfare and that it was not because they wished their Prime Minister to be forced to resign.
   
6. With the widespread loss of confidence in this House an inquiry into this decision would allow the decision making process and the power of the whips to be explored and could help to restore our reputation.
   
7. I believe that all these one-off rebels especially those not called to speak in the debate, whether Labour or the few brave Conservatives, should be questioned personally to find out their own reasons for defying the whips. 
   Did they simply not believe the allegations about weapons of mass destruction like me, because of my recent experiences with spin doctors? 
   Did they believe the support of the UN was vital?
   
8. About 25 of these unusual Labour rebels are no longer MPs indeed some have died including the late MP for West Ham, Tony Banks, who said in the debate, 
              “We have all agreed that this is a matter of conscience
                   and judgement”. 
   He went on to say how reluctant he was to vote against his Party and that he had no wish to cause the PM’s downfall.
   
9. Perhaps the surviving one-off rebels not now in the House should be the first to be approached as they could have no fear of possible reprisals. 
   
10. Thus we must have an independent inquiry in public into the decision by this House that took us to war. 
    No forces personnel would be relevant to this.

R.T.

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