As Obama and Cameron played table
tennis yesterday, a considerably more furious game was being waged between the government and Tory backbenchers. It related to a Parliamentary motion tabled by Mark Reckless – and
described here – that sought to stem UK involvement in
any future bailouts for eurozone countries. All well and good, you’d think, until a rival amendment percolated down from on high to dilute Reckless’s proposals. This new amendment would only go so
far as to “urge the Government to raise the issue of the [bailout mechanism] at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the European Council”. The green benches were set for a
violent back-and-forth ‘tween one side and the other.
The outcome of all this was revealed yesterday evening. The dilutive amendment was approved overwhelmingly, by 267 votes to 46 – and most of them Conservative votes, too.
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