Politics has always been a game of numbers. So important is the business of numbers that there is in both the major political systems across the Atlantic pond provision to ensure that the members of the respective political parties are present to vote in the legislature on matters arising therein.
That official is known as the Chief Whip in the British system and he usually has the right ear of the Prime Minister and a seat in Cabinet, as well as an official residence on the same street as the Prime minister. He ensures that all members of his party vote in parliament, for numbers matter!
Momentous decisions in historical developments on both sides of the Atlantic, sometimes touching on life and death, have been recorded in political life often by the force of numbers and sometimes, by a single vote.
Topically, let us take the first election of Owen Arthur. He lost that election by a single vote to Mrs Sybil Leacock. That election was later overturned. Mr Arthur won the Court ordered rerun and the rest is history.
Owen Arthur seems to fully understand the science of political numbers. In 1994 he skilfully moved a confidence motion against Mr Erskine Sandiford only after the circumstances showed that there was a high probability that he could secure the magic number of 15 votes for a mandatory resignation or election. After the vote on the “no-confidence motion”, an election followed and Mr Arthur became Prime Minister.
As Leader of the Opposition, in July 1979, the first British female prime minister Margaret Thatcher also moved a motion of no confidence against the government of the day. Six hundred and twenty-one votes were cast. She won the motion by one vote and Prime Minister Jim Callaghan called an election. She won that election, but her date with destiny was initiated . . . by a single vote
As momentous as these events may appear they pale into insignificance compared with the fate of King Charles I of England. The vote to behead him was carried by a single vote 68 for, and 67 against beheading him.
In 1923, the election of a leader by the German Nazi party resulted in the election of Adolf Hitler to lead the party . . . by a single vote. History was made again.
Finally, Oliver Cromwell gained control of England by the margin of one vote.
The current situation has not finally resolved itself in a close one-vote contest, but the dispute has clearly demonstrated that in politics whatever else matters, all successful strategies rest in the final analysis on the question of numbers!
