Last night’s vote should have been a free vote!

Talk today and for the coming few days will continue to be about Cameron’s relationship with his parliamentary party, the rebels and the EU referendum. And even though the government won last night’s vote, the focus will be on the Prime Minster and the high cost of his three line whip. Because out of the 111 who voted Yes for a referendum, 82 are Conservatives – and out of that two resigned their government post to vote with their conscious.

And although, on the night, there were some Labour defiance no one will care much about it!

Firstly, the three leaders were wrong to whip this particular vote. They might feel triumphant in their unity and sharing a common ground. But on this occasion they confirmed to the already very skeptical public why our politics is broken and politicians of all hue are disconnected and clueless about what people want and how they feel.

Of course most of Britain, today, is not concerned with the European project beyond “Not With Our Money” when it comes to bailing out members of the €uro! But, the fact still remains that the e- petition was set up to give the public and their backbenchers a voice and the chance to debate the issues that interest them. It did not stipulate what topic or issue should be debated, it just said petitions that reach 100,000 signatures could be debated by MPs in parliament and could possibly be put to a vote. That is why whipping this vote was wrong and a disgrace to our politics and our democracy.

It didn’t at all surprise me that Miliband and Clegg denied their backbenchers a free vote, one is a borderline communist who spent a great deal of his time dictating how people should lead their lives and the other will do and say whatever it takes to be in power and who’d blame him ‘opportunity tends to knock only once’

But for the Prime Minster, who can with a hint and a whisper sway many careerist to vote NO, did not need to put his stature on the line. Especially when Conservatism is founded and built on trusting people to know what’s best for them and believing they can achieve it. What’s more, the e-petition, the Prime Minister’s own initiative, was set up for that precise reason!

We all know it is human nature to rebel when pushed into a corner. That is why I suspect, had the PM gave his MPs a free vote; the no vote might have been much less than 82. Many Tories, including MPs, are already unhappy about aspects of the coalition and think the LibDems have disproportionate powers in this partnership. That kind of feeling if allowed to fester will make an already challenging situation impossible. Cameron should have used last night’s vote as a pressure release and gained brownie points with his backbenchers, grassroots but mostly with the 100,000 citizens who bothered to sign the petition.