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76-508: The Conservatives' economic policy was not successful, and the government took a U-turn . A 90-day freeze of pay and prices (as well as rents and dividends) was introduced on 6 November 1972 under the Counter-Inflation (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 . This was replaced by a Price and Pay Code , which strictly limited increases, supervised by a new Price Commission and a Pay Board. The Conservatives were unable to keep power after

152-553: A Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) on whom to vote. Should a whip's order be violated by a member of the same party, then the whip can recommend immediate dismissal of that member from the house due to indiscipline and the Speaker of the respective house can decide on the matter (without time limit). Should the whip choose not follow up on the violation his/her official whip order by own party member due to any reason, then any member of house can do so to

228-450: A trilogy of books , centred around a fictional party whip named Francis Urquhart , which was dramatised and broadcast by the BBC between 1990 and 1995. The first book in the trilogy, titled House of Cards , was adapted into a television series of the same name , and the title was also used for subsequent series based on other countries' political systems. In House of Cards , Francis Urquhart

304-628: A 3% lead and one a 5% lead. As the Queen was in New Zealand on 7 February, the Prime Minister notified her of his intentions via telegram, rather than by the usual protocol of visiting Buckingham Palace . The key dates were as follows: The election was fought on new constituency boundaries with five more seats added to the 630 used in 1970. This led to many seats changing hands on the new notional boundaries. Notional election results from

380-627: A Conservative government, at least on confidence matters, over one led by Wilson, he would still need the support of the Liberals to have a workable majority. Heath, therefore, started negotiations with Thorpe to form a coalition government . Thorpe, never enthusiastic about supporting the Conservatives, demanded major electoral reforms in exchange for such an agreement. Unwilling to accept such terms, Heath resigned, and Wilson returned for his second stint as Prime Minister . The election night

456-545: A Labour victory would be a "major national disaster". Sandbrook criticised the Conservative manifesto as "very vague and woolly" and lacking in "detailed policies or [a] sense of direction." Edward Heath played a dominant and crucial role in the campaign. In public, he appeared calm and in control. David Watt, in the Financial Times , called him "statesmanlike" and "relaxed". In his party's final broadcast of

532-541: A Labour victory would result in "galloping inflation", and an editorial in The Daily Telegraph said a Labour government would be "complete ruin public and private" and condemned what it saw as Wilson's "craven subservience to trade union power". The Evening Standard published a piece by Kingsley Amis calling the Labour politician Tony Benn , who was to be appointed Secretary of State for Industry after

608-571: A better phrase". Although Burke's particular emphasis on the expression implied its comparative novelty, the hunting term had been used in this political context for at least a generation: on 18 November 1742 Heneage Finch remarked in a letter to Lord Malton that "the Whigs for once in their lives have whipped in better than the Tories". In the Parliament of Australia , as well as in the parliaments of

684-635: A coalition with the Liberals , but the two parties failed to come to an agreement and so Wilson became prime minister for a second time, his first with a minority government. Wilson called another early election in September, which was held in October and resulted in a Labour majority. The February election was also the first general election to be held with the United Kingdom as a member state of

760-577: A democratic mandate . Because, unlike members of a parliament, members of Congress cannot serve simultaneously in Executive Branch positions, a whip in the United States cannot bargain for votes by promising promotion or threatening demotion in a sitting administration. There is, however, a highly structured committee system in both houses of Congress, and a whip may be able to offer promotion or threaten demotion within that system. In

836-637: A free vote on abortion bills, as in the Protection of Human Life In Pregnancy Act. From 1998, whips and assistant whips may be entitled to an allowance on top of their base legislator's salary. In 2011, these allowances varied proportional to the size of the group, with Fianna Fáil's Dáil whip's allowance the highest at €19,000. Party whips in Malaysia serve a similar role as in other Westminster system -based parliamentary democracies. However, party discipline tends to be tighter in Malaysia and therefore

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912-603: A more efficiently distributed Labour vote. Ultimately, the decision by the seven Ulster Unionist MPs not to take the Conservative whip proved decisive in giving Labour a slim plurality of seats. The other four unionists elected were hardliners who were not affiliated with the UUP. Both the Labour and the Conservative parties lost a considerable share of the popular vote, largely to the Liberal Party under Jeremy Thorpe 's leadership, which polled two-and-a-half times its share of

988-511: A seat and a voice in the Cabinet . By virtue of holding the office of Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, the government chief whip has an official residence at 12 Downing Street , although the chief whip's office is currently located at 9 Downing Street. Government whips report to the prime minister on any possible backbench revolts and the general opinion of MPs within the party, and upon

1064-537: A string of by-elections in 1972 and 1973. It had begun to appeal to disaffected Conservative voters and continued to do so throughout the campaign. Thorpe came across as young and charismatic, often attempting to appear above the two-party fray. The manifesto, You can Change the Face of Britain , promised voting reform and devolution, but Sandbrook described its economic policy as "impossibly vague". The Liberals began to contest more seats, standing in 517 constituencies across

1140-518: A top-mobilization order asking members to attend the assembly. Party members failing to obey the order are suspended or expelled from the party. In the United States there are legislatures at the local (city councils, town councils, county boards, etc.), state, and federal levels. The federal legislature ( Congress ), the legislatures in all states except for Nebraska , and many county and city legislative bodies are divided along party lines and have whips, as well as majority and minority leaders. The whip

1216-536: A whole rather than for a single specific party or parliamentary group. In both houses of the Cortes Generales , the Spanish legislature, political parties appoint a member to the role of portavoz adjunto (deputy spokesperson ), which is the third authority of the parliamentary group after the leader and the spokesperson. The deputy spokesperson enforces party discipline in every vote, being thus

1292-599: Is also the assistant majority or assistant minority leader. Both houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and Senate , have majority and minority whips. They in turn have subordinate "regional" whips. While members of Congress often vote along party lines, the influence of the whip is weaker than in the UK system; American politicians have considerably more freedom to diverge from the party line and vote according to their conscience or their constituents' preferences. One reason

1368-579: Is no party line for their whips to enforce. Whips also coordinate pairing . The timing of most votes are difficult to predict and TDs are expected to stay within earshot of the division bell at all times. All TDs are expected to vote with their party and to receive permission if they intend to be absent for a vote. Free votes are not a common feature of the Irish parliamentary tradition but they do happen on occasion, and there are calls for them to happen more often. For instance, Fianna Fáil usually allowed

1444-413: Is not in the chamber at the time of the vote, and also cast proxy votes during personal votes for absent members of their parties and for absent members of associated single-member parties. In British politics, the chief whip of the governing party in the House of Commons is customarily appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury so that the incumbent, who represents the whips in general, has

1520-485: Is that a considerable amount of money is raised by individual candidates. Furthermore, nobody, including members of Congress, can be expelled from a political party, which is formed simply by open registration. Because preselection of candidates for office is generally done through a primary election open to a wide number of voters, candidates who support their constituents' positions rather than those of their party leaders cannot easily be rejected by their party, due to

1596-675: Is the chief whip for the UK Conservative Party and the trilogy charts his ambitious rise through his party's ranks until he becomes Prime Minister . In the American remake of House of Cards , Frank Underwood is the House Majority Whip for the US Democratic Party . The series charts Underwood's ambitious rise through his party's ranks until he becomes president . The name Frank Underwood

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1672-422: Is to ensure party discipline (that members of the party vote according to the party platform rather than their individual beliefs or that of donors or constituents) in a legislature . Whips are the party's "enforcers". They work to ensure that their fellow political party legislators attend voting sessions and vote according to their party's official policy. Members who vote against party policy may "lose

1748-661: The 1979 general election , and the Counter-Inflation Act 1973 was repealed by the Competition Act 1980 . This article related to government in the United Kingdom or its constituent countries is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This economics -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . February 1974 United Kingdom general election Edward Heath Conservative Harold Wilson Labour The February 1974 United Kingdom general election

1824-522: The Canadian Senate or a provincial legislature charged with ensuring party discipline among members of the caucus . In the House of Commons, the whip's office prepares and distributes vote sheets identifying the party position on each bill or motion. The whip is also responsible for assigning offices and scheduling speakers from his or her party for various bills, motions and other proceedings in

1900-756: The European Communities (EC), which was widely known as the "Common Market". Its results saw Northern Ireland diverging heavily from the rest of the United Kingdom, with all twelve candidates elected being from local parties (eleven of them representing unionist parties) after the decision of the Ulster Unionists to withdraw support from the Conservative Party in protest over the Sunningdale Agreement . The Scottish National Party achieved significant success at

1976-480: The European Economic Community and to holding a national referendum on the issue. The Labour campaign presented the party's leadership as competent negotiators, who would restore peace with the unions. Unlike in previous elections, Wilson took something of a back seat and allowed James Callaghan , Denis Healey and Shirley Williams to play equal, if not greater, roles in the campaign. In

2052-452: The president pro tempore of the Senate . As the office of president pro tempore is largely honorific and usually given to the longest-serving senator of the majority, the majority whip is in reality the second-ranking senator in the majority conference. Similarly, in the House, the majority whip is outranked by both the majority leader and the speaker . Unlike the Senate's presiding officer,

2128-468: The 1970 general election were calculated on behalf of the BBC by Michael Steed to of compare constituency results with those of February 1974. For the first time since 1929 , the two largest political parties had received less than a combined share of 80% of the vote, and the Liberals had also won more than 10% of the vote. Whip (politics) A whip is an official of a political party whose task

2204-655: The Conservative campaign came on 26 February when Campbell Adamson , Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), was reported to have called for the repeal of the Heath Government's Industrial Relations Act and to have said that the Act had "sullied every relationship between employers and unions at national level". Adamson had been closely involved with the Downing Street talks over

2280-523: The Conservative manifesto, urged people to vote against Heath for bringing about UK membership of the European Communities . In a speech in Birmingham on 23 February 1974, Powell claimed the main issue in the campaign was whether Britain was to "remain a democratic nation ... or whether it will become one province in a new Europe super-state"; he said it was people's "national duty" to oppose those who had deprived Parliament of "its sole right to make

2356-437: The House of Representatives, the influence of a single member individually is relatively small and therefore depends a great deal on the representative's seniority (i.e., in most cases, on the length of time they have held office). In the Senate, the majority whip is the third-highest ranking individual in the majority party (the party with the most seats). The majority whip is outranked by the majority leader and, unofficially,

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2432-416: The House. In Bangladesh, the concept of the whip was inherited from colonial British rule . Chief Whip is a member of the parliament of Bangladesh from the ruling party who is responsible for the maintenance of party discipline inside the parliament. The work of the whip is to ensure the proper participation (as the party wants) of the party MPs in the activities of the parliament , such as voting, If

2508-517: The MP's constituency, and private lives." Former chief whips disclosed that whips have a notebook documenting MPs' indiscretions, and that they help MPs in any sort of trouble ("it might be debt, it might be ... a scandal involving small boys ...") in any way they can to "store up brownie points ... that sounds a pretty, pretty nasty reason, but it's one of the reasons because if we could get a chap out of trouble then he will do as we ask forever more." Having

2584-445: The Speaker is the leader of his or her party's caucus in the House . In both the House and the Senate, the minority whip is the second highest-ranking individual in the minority party (the party with the lesser number of legislators in a legislative body), outranked only by the minority leader . The whip position was created in the House of Representatives in 1897 by Republican Speaker Thomas Reed , who appointed James A. Tawney as

2660-729: The Speaker. Whips exist for all parliamentary parties in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann . The government chief whip is normally a Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach , and attends cabinet meetings . The whips of each house meet weekly to set the agenda for the next week's business. The Technical Group in the Dáil and the analogous Independent groups in the Seanad nominate whips to attend these meetings even though there

2736-475: The United Kingdom, Australian whips do not hold official office, but they are recognised for parliamentary purposes. In practice, Australian whips play a lesser role than their counterparts in the United Kingdom, as party discipline in Australia tends to be tighter. Their roles in the chamber include taking divisions, and maintaining a " pairs book " which controls the ability of members and senators to leave

2812-427: The balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families". It advocated planning agreements with industry and the creation of a National Enterprise Board . That section attracted criticism from some figures within the party. For example, Anthony Crosland privately called the programme "half-baked" and "idiotic".The manifesto also committed the party to renegotiating the terms of Britain's entry into

2888-534: The campaign he said: "I'll do all that I can for this country ... We've started a job together. With your will, we shall go on and finish the job". One Conservative political broadcast attracted controversy for its ferocity. In the film the narrator warned that Labour would confiscate "your bank account, your mortgage and your wage packet" while pictures of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan dissolved into those of Michael Foot and Tony Benn . It went on to allege that Labour would not have to move much further to

2964-548: The claims of the National Coal Board . That came as a severe blow to the Conservative position, and led to accusations that the National Coal Board did not understand its own pay system and that the strike was unnecessary. Further bad news for Heath and his party came four days later, with the latest trade figures showing that the current account deficit for the previous month had been £383,000,000,

3040-574: The country on television on the evening of 7 February, and asked: Do you want a strong Government which has clear authority for the future to take decisions which will be needed? Do you want Parliament and the elected Government to continue to fight strenuously against inflation? Or do you want them to abandon the struggle against rising prices under pressure from one particularly powerful group of workers ... This time of strife has got to stop. Only you can stop it. It's time for you to speak—with your vote. It's time for your voice to be heard—the voice of

3116-465: The country's problems. It was the first general election in the United Kingdom to be held during an economic crisis since the 1931 general election , which had been held in the depths of the Great Depression . Throughout the campaign 25 of the 26 opinion polls had a Conservative lead and one even by 9%. Of the six polls on election day (28 February), two had a 2% lead, two a 4% lead, one

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3192-503: The country. During the election, the Scottish National Party campaigned widely on the political slogan " It's Scotland's oil ". It was argued that the discovery of North Sea oil off the coast of Scotland and the revenue that it created would not benefit Scotland to any significant degree while it remained part of the United Kingdom. The historian Dominic Sandbrook describes the "level of partisanship" amongst

3268-543: The debating chamber when required and organising members of their party to speak during debates. Since the introduction of proportional representation in 1996, divisions that require all members in the chamber to vote by taking sides (termed a personal vote ) are rarely used, except for conscience votes . Instead, one of the party's whips votes on behalf of all the members of their party, by declaring how many members are in favour and/or how many members are opposed. They also cast proxy votes for single-member parties whose member

3344-586: The election by increasing its share of the popular vote in Scotland from 11% to 22%, and its number of MPs from one to seven. Plaid Cymru also succeeded for the first time in getting candidates elected at a general election in Wales (its sole previous seat was won at a by-election in 1966 ). Although Heath's incumbent Conservative government polled the most votes by a small margin, the Conservatives were overtaken in terms of seats by Wilson's Labour Party because of

3420-583: The election was held prompted both The Sun and the Daily Mirror to characterise it as a "crisis election". On 10 February, the National Union of Mineworkers , as expected, went on strike, but it was more of a low-key affair than the high-profile clashes of 1972 , with no violence and only six men on each picket line. Jim Prior later wrote that the miners had been "as quiet and well-behaved as mice". The Three-Day Week continued throughout

3496-526: The election, "the most dangerous man in Britain", and in the Daily Express , the cartoonist Cummings depicted the miners' leader Joe Gormley , Wilson and other Labour figures as French revolutionaries guillotining Heath. The Guardian , in contrast, chose to support no party openly. Its columnist Peter Jenkins claimed the last ten years had proved that "neither party" had the ability to deal with

3572-627: The election, although Heath allowed the late-night television curfew to be lifted to allow more coverage of the campaign. The low profile of the miners' strike allowed worries over inflation to dominate the election. On 15 February, it was announced that the Retail Price Index showed a 20% increase in prices over the previous year. On 21 February, the Pay Board released a report on miners' pay, which unexpectedly revealed that they were paid less than other manufacturing workers, contrary to

3648-479: The equivalent of a party whip in English-speaking countries. Although South Africa uses a proportional representation system, the concept of a political party whip, which was inherited from colonial British rule , has been maintained. In 2017, African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe said "Voting according to conscience doesn't work in a political party system. We all get into

3724-572: The exercise of patronage , which is used to motivate and reward loyalty. The role of whips is largely to ensure that MPs vote as required by the party leadership, i.e. to secure the government's business, and to protect the prime minister. Whips use a combination of threats and promises to secure compliance. A former chief whip said that there was a dividing line between legitimate and illegitimate persuasion: "Yes to threats on preferment (for government positions) and honours . No to abusing public money, such as threatening to withhold money from projects in

3800-401: The final broadcast of the campaign, a series of leading figures claimed Labour could put Britain "on the road to recovery". In the film, Wilson asserted: "Trades unionists are people. Employers are people. We can't go on setting one against the other except at the cost of damage to the nation itself". The Liberal Party had undergone a revival under the leadership of Jeremy Thorpe by winning

3876-512: The first to take place after the United Kingdom became a member of the European Communities on 1 January 1973, and the first since 1929 not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the party with the most votes. This was also the first time since 1910 that two general elections were held in the same year. On Thursday 7 February, it was announced that Prime Minister Edward Heath had asked Queen Elizabeth II , who

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3952-503: The first whip. The first Democratic whip, Oscar Wilder Underwood , was appointed in about 1900. In the Senate, the position was created in 1913 by John W. Kern , chair of the Democratic caucus, when he appointed J. Hamilton Lewis as the first whip, while Republicans later chose James Wadsworth as the party's first in 1915. Michael Dobbs , formerly Chief of Staff for British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , wrote

4028-409: The future Chancellor Nigel Lawson , was entitled Firm Action for a Fair Britain and characterised by the historian Dominic Sandbrook as "strident rhetoric". It claimed the Labour opposition had been taken over by "a small group of power-hungry trade union leaders", who were "committed to a left-wing programme more dangerous and more extreme than ever before in its history". It went on to assert that

4104-561: The green benches, they have to sit as an independent MP. " "... severe punishment. The most severe is "having the whip withdrawn" - which means you are kicked out of the party within Parliament." "Defying a three-line whip is very serious, and has occasionally resulted in the whip being withdrawn from an MP or Lord. This means that the Member is effectively expelled from their party (but keeps their seat) and must sit as an independent until

4180-666: The inconclusive February 1974 UK general election , and the Pay Board was abolished in July 1974 by the minority Labour government led by Harold Wilson , but the Price Commission continued. The scope of its powers were amended by the Price Commission Act 1977 and the Price Commission (Amendment) Act 1979 . Controls on prices were abolished soon after the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher won

4256-627: The laws and impose the taxes of the country". The speech prompted The Sun to run the headline "Enoch puts the boot in". A few days later, he said he hoped for victory by "the party which is committed to a fundamental renegotiation of the Treaty of Brussels and to submitting to the British People ;... the outcome of that renegotiation". Those were the explicit manifesto promises of the Labour Party. A further unforeseen blow to

4332-486: The leader and deputy leader of parliament are absent, the whip can speak for them. In India, Every major political party appoints a whip who is responsible for the party's discipline and behaviours on the floor of the house . Usually, they direct the party members to stick to the party's stand on certain issues and directs them to vote as per the direction of senior party members. However, there are some cases such as Indian Presidential elections where whips cannot direct

4408-524: The left before "you could find yourself not even owning your own home". Wilson was reportedly furious, and Lord Carrington , the Secretary of State for Energy, made a formal apology. The Labour manifesto, Let us work together , consisted of only ten pages only, the shortest since 1955 . It had been greatly influenced by the economist Stuart Holland and Shadow Industry Secretary Tony Benn . In it, Labour promised "a fundamental and irreversible shift in

4484-815: The list of things and go to Parliament as parliamentarians of the ANC [...] There will be no voting against the ANC." Party whips exist in most of the major parties of the Legislative Yuan . For example, in the Democratic Progressive Party the party whip is the Caucus leader. In the Kuomintang the party whip is the executive director of the Policy Committee or the caucus leader. When voting for critical bills, whips may issue

4560-521: The mining dispute. Although Heath emphasised that Adamson was voicing a personal opinion and that his views did not express the official position of the CBI, he after the election acknowledged that the intervention had a negative impact on the Conservative campaign. Labour, meanwhile, cited Adamson's comments as proving the need "for everything they (had)... been urging on the Government". Heath addressed

4636-408: The moderate and reasonable people of Britain: the voice of the majority. It's time for you to say to the extremists, the militants, and the plain and simply misguided: we've had enough. There's a lot to be done. For heaven's sake, let's get on with it. The Conservative campaign was, thus, encapsulated by the now-famous phrase "Who governs Britain?" The party's manifesto, which was largely written by

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4712-428: The national newspapers during the election as "unprecedented" in post-war Britain, with most of the media prejudiced in favour of Heath and the Conservatives. The Daily Mirror was one of the few national newspapers to support Labour, with many others urging their readers to re-elect Heath. In the right-wing media, there was fierce condemnation of Wilson and his party. The Sun , which had supported Labour in 1970, claimed

4788-579: The parliament building during sittings, as well as the entitlement to be absent during divisions. Liberal Party whips are appointed by the leader of the party, while Australian Labor Party whips are elected by the Caucus . For Labor and the Liberals, the chief whip is assisted by two deputy whips. In Canada the Party Whip is the member of a political party in the Canadian House of Commons ,

4864-623: The role of the whip is generally less important, though its importance is heightened when the government majority is less in the lower house. In New Zealand, the concept of the whip was inherited from British rule. All political parties that have four or more members in Parliament have at least one party whip, although Green Party whips are called musterers . Parties with 25 to 44 members are allowed two whips (one senior and one junior), and parties with 45 or more members are entitled to three whips (one senior and two junior). Whips act in an administrative role, making sure members of their party are in

4940-399: The six states and two self-governing territories, major political parties have whips to ensure party discipline and carry out a variety of other functions on behalf of the party leadership. The most important function of the whip's office is to ensure that all members and senators are present to take part in votes in the chamber (maintaining quorum and preventing censure motions ). Unlike in

5016-482: The term whipper-in as, "a huntsman's assistant who keeps the hounds from straying by driving them back with the whip into the main body of the pack". According to that dictionary, the first recorded use of the term whipper-in in the parliamentary sense occurs in 1772. However, P.D.G. Thomas in House of Commons in the Eighteenth Century cites two examples of the use of the term that pre-date 1772. It

5092-431: The vote in the previous election. However, even with over 6,000,000 votes, only 14 Liberal MPs were elected. There had been some media projections that the Liberals could take twice as many seats. Given that it was not obvious who could command the support of the House, Heath did not resign immediately as prime minister. However, he knew that even if he could persuade all eleven of Northern Ireland's unionist MPs to support

5168-581: The whip is restored." Most parliamentary groups in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic appoint a Segretario (Secretary) or Segretario d'Aula (Floor Secretary), who enforces party discipline in the same way a whip does in English-speaking nations. The Minister for Parliamentary Relations also often acts like a whip, but works for the incumbent governing coalition as

5244-434: The whip withdrawn means the MP is effectively expelled from their party. UK parties do not have the power to expel an MP from parliament, but can force the MP to sit as an independent and remove them from ministerial office. "Losing the whip is seen by many as one of the strongest punishments a political party can dole out to its MPs. The move essentially expels the member from their party, meaning that while they can remain on

5320-484: The whip", being expelled from the party. The term is taken from the " whipper-in " during a hunt, who tries to prevent hounds from wandering away from a hunting pack. Additionally, the term "whip" may mean the voting instructions issued to legislators, or the status of a certain legislator in their party's parliamentary grouping. The expression whip in its parliamentary context, derived from its origins in hunting terminology. The Oxford English Dictionary defines

5396-455: The worst in recorded history. Heath claimed the figures confirmed "the gravity of the situation" and the need for a new mandate, which prompted Roy Jenkins to quip: "He [Heath] presumably thinks a still worse result would have given him a still stronger claim". One of the most unexpected and explosive events of the campaign was when the outspoken Conservative MP Enoch Powell , who had already announced that he could not stand for re-election on

5472-477: Was chosen to have the same initials as the original trilogy's protagonist Francis Urquhart, and to reference Oscar Underwood , the first party whip for the US Democratic Party. The song " Demolition Man " by The Police references party whips in the lyric "I'm a three-line whip, I'm the sort of thing they ban." The Seinfeld episode " The Scofflaw " features a scene where Kramer explains that

5548-454: Was covered live on the BBC and was presented by Alastair Burnet , David Butler , Robert McKenzie and Robin Day . Prominent members of Parliament who retired or were defeated at the election included Gordon Campbell , Bernadette McAliskey , Enoch Powell , Richard Crossman , Tom Driberg and Patrick Gordon Walker . It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year,

5624-492: Was held on Thursday 28 February 1974. The Labour Party , led by Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson , gained 14 seats (301 total) but was seventeen short of an overall majority. The Conservative Party , led by incumbent Prime Minister Edward Heath , lost 28 seats (though it polled a higher share of the vote than Labour). That resulted in a hung parliament , the first since 1929 . Heath sought

5700-476: Was then in New Zealand for the 1974 British Commonwealth Games , to dissolve Parliament for a general election to take place on 28 February. Because of the Queen's being abroad, the dissolution of parliament was required to be promulgated by Counsellors of State , in this case Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret , on her express instructions. The severe economic circumstances in which

5776-437: Was within the context of such summonses to members out of town that the first known Parliamentary instance of the use of the term "whip" occurred. In the debate of 8 May 1769 on a petition from some Middlesex freeholders against the seating of Henry Luttrell instead of John Wilkes, Edmund Burke mentioned that the ministry had sent for their friends to the north and to Paris, "whipping them in, than which, he said, there could not be

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