This report analyses the cohesion of British parliamentary parties over a range of `free' votes - votes on which the party managers gave no instructions - between 1979 and 1996. British parties are usually highly cohesive, and this is often attributed to strict party management by the party `whips', who are said to bully MPs into line. But this report shows that high levels of party discipline exist even when the whips are `off'. Even on moral issues, which are said to split the parties, it is more usual to see the vast majority of one main party opposing the vast majority of the other main party.
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