“It’s like the Masque of the Red Death” Stephen Pound said on Newsnight recently. “The band’s playing, the wine’s being served but half the dancers are dead and are just going through the motions.” And indeed, just yesterday, five more Labour MPs fell.
According to the polls, about half of them will lose their seat at the next election. With coming retirements, the number of MPs going at the next election will be 335 according to Sunday Times/Thrasher estimates, just over half of the total number of MPs. Even the Great Reform Act of 1832 only got rid of a third of the chamber. This is the undead parliament, most of whose members are waiting for the payout that accompanies the general election – whenever it comes.
There may be several Labour MPs who would be tempted to vote for an election and take the payout before another wave of public anger prompts a new Commons reform and robs them of it.
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