A few moments ago in Committee Room 14 at the usually staid Statutory Instruments Committee, Labour members voted in the national interest.  Government whips got it through 10/6. Something very rare happened in what is usually the dullest of committees. A dozen or so Tory non-members of the committee came and spoke against affirming the instrument. Government whips cajoled the pliant Tory and LibDem members of the committee to vote to affirm the instrument while Tory MPs spoke from the floor against it. Promising new boy Steve Baker and backbench eurosceptic Douglas Carswell were among those who spoke against affirming the instrument. If Guido’s grasp of arcane parliamentary procedure is correct this will now have to go to a silent vote of the whole house without a debate.