More thoughtful commentary by Andrew Coyne:
People like me are inclined to look for structural causes in cases like these. But it is as much about the character of the individuals involved. Because whatever the wishes of those in power, in fact everybody has a choice in these situations. The members of the committee who voted to throw out Warawa’s motion knew they were doing a grubby, sordid thing. They did it anyway…
There is a role for parties, of course, and in return for the benefits of membership, party members are obliged to accept certain responsibilities. If you are elected on a common platform, for example, you are honour-bound to support that platform. But just because a party takes no position on an issue does not mean its individual members may not. No platform can abolish freedom of speech, and no leader can promise to bar members from presenting private member’s motions in Parliament.
But then, it is not only the Conservative leadership that needs reminding of this. For the suppression of MPs in favour of the leader is an ill that afflicts all parties, to a greater or lesser extent. Members of all parties voted together to deprive Warawa of his rights, at the behest, you may be sure, of their respective leaders. That is whose “team” was really in action at that moment: the party leaders, who whatever their other differences, share a common interest in power, and their own possession of it.
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