They see themselves first and foremost as constituency champions and only second as party animals ? if at all
Sarah Wollaston, an MP and doctor, wanted to be appointed to the committee considering the Government's Health Bill and once in place to table amendments to it. A reasonable aim? Not in the view of the Government Whips. As Wollaston set out in this paper last week, they kept her off the committee, precisely for fear of her trying to improve legislation - one of the main duties, surely, of a legislator.
But the whips in general and David Cameron in particular are in no position to complain. For both Sarah Wollaston and the change she wants are partly their own invention. In opposition, they swore that under a Conservative government there'd be free votes in committee (except in finance bills: George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, was insistent on the point), and suggested more all-postal primaries, at which Tory parliamentary candidates are selected ? as Wollaston was ? by local voters, not party members.
Once safely installed in government, however, the Conservative backtracking began. True, a backbench business committee is now in place, with control over Commons time: it was this body which, by tabling last week's vote over votes for prisoners, gave David Davis and Jack Straw their opportunity, and created a colossal problem for Cameron and Nick Clegg.
But there are no free votes in committee, and there may be no more Conservative all-postal primaries, either. They were rushed in during the expenses scandal to distance the party from its allowance-claiming MPs. Cameron was keen to encourage as many old timers as possible to move on, and replace them with a new generation of unsullied candidates.
Party members didn't exactly warm to primaries. The Conservative establishment grumbled about the expense. In the end, only two Tory MPs were selected by them ? Wollaston and Caroline Dinenage in Gosport. As the expenses scandal recedes, expect more parliamentary selections to move back into the hands of the local Conservative associations.
But despite the lack of all-postal primaries, there are more Wollastons around than you'd think ? that is, more Tory MPs who are prepared to defy the whips. There have already been 100 rebellions by coalition MPs in a parliament less than a year old ? over matters as various as an in-out EU referendum, the planned forest sell-off, student fees, the alternative vote and smoking. As Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart have written, the rebellion rate of this parliament is already "without parallel in the postwar era ? rebellion has become the norm, cohesion the exception". They note that the Conservative rebellion rate of 35% marks a trebling since the last parliament, while Liberal Democrat MPs have gone from rebelling in just 3% of divisions to 26%.
Behind these short-term revolts is a longer-term trend. The share of the vote won by the bigger parties has declined. Elections are becoming more competitive. Demands on MPs have never been higher, while opinion of them has never been lower. Put simply, they're increasingly becoming full-time legislators ? a role fundamentally at odds with their other potential duty, serving as part-time ministers. Slowly and perhaps surely, the executive and legislature and going their separate ways.
There have always been Conservative rebels ? ask those with memories of Maastricht. But this generation is different. Such backbench Tories as Peter Bone, Philip Davies and Philip Hollobone see themselves first and foremost as constituency champions, and only second as party animals (if at all). Significantly, all three of them were elected by their colleagues to that backbench Business Committee - a sign that they're not lone rangers at odds with the pack.
In the meantime, Cameron has followed Gordon Brown's footsteps in appointing ministers and advisers from outside the Commons. Where Brown had his goats, Cameron has Stephen Green, the ex-HSBC chairman, as his trade minister, and Sir Philip Green of Topshop as an efficiency adviser.
The unconventional Wollaston is the wave of the future. And in the present, this combination of spending cuts and rebellious MPs is a perilous combination for the prime minister.
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