76% of Labour MPs voted FOR the ban (270 out of 356) including all Brighton and Hove MPs, David Lepper, Des Turner and Celia Barlow.
64% of Tory MPs voted AGAINST the ban (125 out of 198) including David Cameron and Michael Gove. A further 14% of Tory MPs abstained (26).
For the full list see here.
It is clear that with a Tory government, this ban never would have happened. For a start there never would have been a bill introduced in the first place.
Great blog, this is my first visit, from a link on Skuds's blog.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right and their arguments about liberty do not stack up. I even heard one of them saying it should be left up to the market, just how the health of the majority can be protected against the selfish few by market forces is beyond me. Some Tories seem to think that the free market is the answer to everything. I think this government has shown that the free market can be helped by a bit of regulation in a few important areas that impact on health and welfare.
You are quite right too it should be banned in front of children and I would extend it to the street as well.
Cheers.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe the Tories want a 'free market', what they really hanker after is a return to the victorian certainties of 'know thy place' and all the squalor and inequality that comes with it.
The free market of the Tories, is just a business free for all, with no respect for a living wage or environmental concerns.
What the Tories seem to forget is that, a free market is actually unobtainable because it requires things like, perfect knowledge and perfect competition, which requires an infinite number of competing firms in a market with no restrictions on access into that market. This is of course impossible.
Left to its own devices a 'free market' degenerates into monopolies and massive distortions in prices and wages. All we can do is 'aim' towards a free market, and rather than needing less regulation, this actually requires more regulation to protect against monopolistic control and gross distortions of the market.