Members reject the euro, back shared housing for MPs

The day's clearest message was a refusal. Members rejected the euro overwhelmingly, with one voter wondering aloud whether anyone proposing it was insane, and the lone Yes case amounted to a shrug about whose head appears on the money. It set the tone for a day in which members said no far more often than yes.

The verdicts

Compulsion fared badly. Members voted overwhelmingly against making parenting classes compulsory for all new parents, the most-respected voice noting that you don't persuade people through compulsion. A comfortable majority also turned down weekend-only short prison sentences for full-time workers, the best argument being a dilemma: if someone can function in society Monday to Friday, why do they need prison at all?

The same wariness shaped the verdicts on government. Members rejected letting a new government replace senior civil servants with its own appointees, though even some Yes voters sounded reluctant about it. On counting remittances as UK foreign aid, members comfortably said no, several of them no fans of aid at all.

The one clear yes went to MPs. Members overwhelmingly backed MPs giving up taxpayer-funded second homes for shared accommodation near Parliament, reasoning that they earn a fortune. The sharpest No lines warned of a security nightmare and a Parliament open only to those without families.

The tighter contests came last. Members narrowly backed taxing wealth more in the next Budget rather than cutting pensions and welfare, even though the No side wrote the louder argument: that the wealthy will leave and the tax will cost more than it raises. And on sanctions against Argentina over its pressure on Falklands oil firms, the day's closest result, members held back, though much of the debate was a polite "not yet", with sanctions kept in reserve should Argentina escalate.

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