Almost A Fairly Proud Day For Democracy

Several dozen Labour MPs have joined with the Liberal Democrats and Daveybloke's Cuddly Opportunists to inflict a welcome, if largely symbolic, defeat upon the Glorious Successor and his repellent Minister for Mature Debate, Phil Woolas. Gordon and his nasty little sidekick claimed that an open-door policy for Gurkha veterans would lead to a vast wave of up to a hundred thousand culturally backward immigrants demanding benefits at the point of a kukri-knife; but the fact that the vote had no legislative power seems to have had an unexpectedly salutary effect on whatever the Parliamentary Labour Party uses for backbone. Hence, thanks to the Government's trademark meanness of spirit, Nick "Who?" Clegg has gained some welcome publicity, Daveybloke has had the chance to pose as a strict-but-fair Head Boy on immigration, and they've both had a photo-opportunity with Joanna Lumley. Daveybloke, whose party has made much of the Government's hasty and ill-thought-out policies (while offering, as the enticing alternative, no discernible policies at all), blathered that the Government "should come back with immediate proposals"; while Lumley spoke of a "sense of pride - pride in our country, pride in the democratic system and pride in our parliament", which may be a bit premature. Still, a sense of pleasant surprise that a narrow majority got it right this time is probably in order.