Apologies, Michael!! RIP - Regulation of Investigatory Powers. Basically, allowing the UK government to spy on it's citizens. The "whips" are Party officers in parliament, and basically, whenever the government needs to get something passed it runs a lined whip - meaning, each MP has to cast their vote according to the wishes of the Party, rather than their own wishes, on pain of having the whip withdrawn (i.e., being kicked out of the Party).
Ok, there's something similar in Germany here (and maybe almost every country...) The names change, but the meaning is the important thing :)
The point is, (in the UK at least), it can be the case that Government uses it's majority to force legislation through, rather than convincing MPs and winning the argument. In this case, there's very little lobbying can do.
Well, I see... Cheers, Michael
Cheers,
Alex.
It's www.stand.org.uk, and we lost against the RIP bill in spite of it.
I think we lost against RIP more because of lined whips - most people
were
agreed that RIP should have been case law, rather than parliamentary
act.
I'd still rather have STAND than not have it.
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