Today, the budget of the United Kingdom was voted on in the Parliament of The United Kingdom.
This is the money the government is going to use to pay for important things like welfare and the NHS - you know, things that really matter to people in this country.
585 MPs voted on it - 310 to 275 in favour, giving the government a majority of 35. Which is almost twice their natural majority, but that is a topic for another time.
Because what interests me most about this vote is that - when voting on the money that is going to support (amongst other things) the military, the NHS, the welfare system and the police, 65 MPs did not turn up to vote. Or they turned up and decided they had no opinion on it.
A full TEN PERCENT of the people who run our country could not be arsed to turn up to vote on the operating budget of our country.
If 10% of the doctors in the NHS decided not to turn up to their job, Cameron - and most of the Tory MPs - would pitch a fit. If 10% of fire engines didn’t turn up to fires then most of Parliament would pitch a fit.
So how is it that on what seems to be one of, if not the most, important votes of the Parliamentary session ten percent of our elected representatives failed to do their jobs?