theyworkforyou
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mysociety
Add original motion to individual vote pages
Sometimes the individual vote statements can be confusing if the underlying motion and the plain english description are worded in opposition:
e.g. https://www.theyworkforyou.com/divisions/pw-2015-01-20-133-commons/mp/24913 Vs https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2015-01-20b.90.1
It might be helpful to include the original motion on the page as well in order to clarify, and also so people don't need to click through to see it.
The full description of the vote from PublicWhip might be more useful, and easier to obtain, than the motion text.
Often motion texts are uninformative eg. : That the amendment be made : That the original words stand part of the Question : That the Bill be now read a second time
In the example given, the description of the vote on PublicWhip primarily just a quote of the motion text:
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2015-01-20&number=133&showall=yes#voters
If the description was taken from PublicWhip then the first line of the description is usually, and is for votes since 2010, a statement on how the majority of MPs voted so the calculated line:
" A majority of MPs voted the same. "
could also probably be dropped.
Came here to say this as well - we had a user asking about this vote today: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2016-07-20b.890.0
A user was confused about this vote https://www.theyworkforyou.com/divisions/pw-2011-02-02-188-commons/mp/10473 - which is understandable if you don't look at the motion.
A user emailed:
Why don't your reports on voting include the actual wording on which the MP voted. Without this there is no point.
Why don't your reports on voting include the actual wording on which the MP voted. Without this there is no point.
TheyWorkForYou does already carry the actual motion text. It's contained within the debate record. One option here to address the latter comments is to improve the "show full debate" links from the vote page, or add another link.
I've started another ticket specifically on that: Explain motion text can be found in debate records when linking from page on individual divisions #1583
As mentioned above, more links to PublicWhip (#1123) might help those seeking to drill down to the details too.
Addressing https://github.com/mysociety/theyworkforyou/issues/1424 and including a sentence describing how the individual MP voted would help here.