ABSTRACT
The dominance of party over Parliament is a hallmark of the Westminster system. For the most part, that dominance renders parliamentary voting an insensitive and unreliable indicator of the complex patterns of opinion to be found amongst MPs. As Hugh Berrington remarked two decades ago, ‘The division lists… reproduce the details of a ritual satisfying to the Whips but usually offer nothing of interest to the inquirer except that Labour Members have voted with the ayes and the Conservatives with the noes or vice versa’ (Berrington 1973:2). Since he wrote those words, backbenchers have shown themselves rather more willing to defy their party masters and mistresses (Norton 1975, 1980), but the party system still imposes a heavy imprint upon the parliamentary process.
