still clanging

all that noise will not drown out the truth:

this from the website of Mr Salter, who told the media he was campaigning for the Gurkhas and then told them he "didn't want to vote against the Government" on the issue:

Mr Salter, who set up and chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gurkha Rights with Ann Widdecombe (Con) and Bob Russell (LibDem), negotiated a Government pledge not to deport any former Gurkha soldiers from Britain who failed to meet their new criteria and for the much-criticised settlement guidelines to be re-written by the summer. This climbdown was achieved two hours before the non-binding vote on the Liberal Democrat motion, and was welcomed by politicians of all parties and the Gurkhas themselves. Mr Salter addressed the Gurkha rally outside Parliament on Wednesday on details of the climbdown and received a warm reception

so what is a non-binding vote then? In eight years in the House I never heard of such a thing. A vote second class? A pretend vote? A children's vote? One that comes with a warning in Hansard "Please note: this vote Does Not Count. Any MP who told the media they were voting one way and voted another or abstained is Let Off."

No.

I think rewritten was last spelled with a hyphen in about 1943.

John Howarth is 59.

One Labour MP, Stephen Pound, resigned as a PPS because he said he "couldn't look his Gurkha friends in the face" unless he voted against the Government on this issue. Is Mr Salter going to condemn Mr Pound for that course of action, given that the vote was "symbolic" and "non-binding"?