One Vote!

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the confidence vote which brought down the 1974-79 Labour Government, and brought forward the 1979 General Election. For my study of whips during the 1979-2010 period it was a key event - so I have amassed much material on the events of the day.

There was confusion on the night. Jimmy Hamilton, a Labour whip had given a thumbs up sign to the Labour benches, mistakenly believing that the Government had just succeeded. However it was 311-310 for the motion of no confidence. Alfred Broughton, the MP for Batley and Morley was gravely ill - the Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, thought it would have been inhuman to have him brought to Westminster (from Leeds - a 400 mile roundtrip) in an ambulance for his vote to be counted. He was to die a few days later.

This was one of the few examples in the 20th Century of a government defeat leading to the fall of a government. (There have been many government defeats  in the House of Commons –  but only three were defeats which were regarded as confidence votes - Jan 21st 1924, Oct 8th 1924 & Mar 28th 1979.

There are various accounts of that day in political memoirs; biographies and histories. An article by Roy Hattersley can be found here.

Core Principles of the UK Constitution

The MindMap below highlights the key (indeed CORE) principles which underlie the UK Constitution. If you ever need to describe the UK Constitution - these are ideas which you need to explain.

Most textbooks will set out a definition; some authorities; some examples illustrating the application of the principle. You could use this MindMap as a starting point for your own larger MindMap (great for revision purposes) - make sure that you add a brief definition (better to put it in your own words than try to memorise a quote from someone else) plus a handful of key cases and examples.

Dicey was a genius at highlighting the key ideas in such doctrines. He is summarised in many textbooks - and his book "Introduction to the study of The Law of the Constitution" is worth a read - even if it's a skim read to get you "fit" prior to an exam.



A more recent book - which can be read in a few hours - and is both readable AND full of useful definitions and modern examples is the late Lord Bingham's "The Rule of Law"