Wednesday 15 September 2010

Warren and the well-hung parliament

In the new uncertain days that lay ahead, as we venture into a delicately-balanced hung Parliament, the man of the Far North, Warren Inch, I mean Entsch, has been appointed as the party's whip.

Mr Rabbit has handed the job of Party Whip to Warren Entsch, the new MP for Leichhardt.

Now we've all heard this term before, some from the back streets of Portsmith, but this time the dominatrix is a big burly, senior school, not-so-straight speaking, ear-ring wearing, tough guy. There's no way you'd want to run into him in a dark alley, now that he has a whip to boot.

The primary purpose of a "whip" is to ensure party discipline. Whips are party enforcers, who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy. Warren's role will also to ensure that Liberal MPs don't miss important votes.

The usage comes from the hunting term whipping in, as in preventing hounds from wandering away from the pack.

Release the hounds.

6 comments:

Thaddeus said...

Here we go for forty choruses of "Macho Macho Man" (vomit).
As if we haven't had an Opposition "Whip" here before.......

greenbottle said...

Entsch will be pretty good at whipping his mates into line. He never disagreed with one word of Howard's when he was last in office and faithfully regurgitated up whatever Howard said.

Leigh Dall'Osto said...

Interesting days ahead. Imagine trying to corral all of the Coalition and force them to toe the party line. Scary job....good luck to you Warren, I think you're going to need it!

kruddster said...

Labor stooge leigh alphabet it is funny coming from the party that leaks like a sieve hhheeeeeee

Ray Jones Fan said...

True, Thaddeus. The late Ray Jones was Opposition Whip in the State Pariament for some years. Ray was a small, slim man and a gentleman. He had full confidence in his masculinity and didn't feel the need to swear, wear an earring or thump the table with his fist in between spitting out "bloodys". Nor did he ever threaten, use sophistry or tell outright lies to promote himself. He never once manipulated the old white versus black issue for personal political gain, and he rarely passed comment on Federal Politics. "I'm a State Representative," he would always explain when journos asked him to comment on a Federal issue. He was an honest, modest and compassionate man. He wasn't into swaggering braggadocio, wearing crocodile skin boots and cowboy hats or brow-beating weaker males and women to prove he was a man. He never had to. I know this particular item above, about a "Whip" would have disgusted him.

WE who? said...

Oh how I agree with 'Ray Jones fan'!
Having had the privilage of dining with him and other friends on more than a few occassions, I wouldn't consider WE to be worthy of mention in the same breath as Ray.
Ray was a true servant of the people, which if you have had anything to do with WE, could hardly be what he privately considers himself to be.