Daily catch-up: Parliamentary robots and unusual shrubs

The trouble with the new politics is that you can never be sure whether party discipline is good or bad

Lovely photo of "early morning frosty topiary at Formula One" from Helen Ayres.

• ‏Welcome to Autumn Statement day. I have preview of the Chancellor's Leadership Bid (Course Correction) Bill in The Independent today. George Osborne has prepared as diligently as Gordon Brown ever did to secure the succession, but I quote Kenneth Clarke, another Chancellor who wanted to be prime minister: “Forget it – it’s always decided in the three months before.”

• John Woodcock, the Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, had some full and frank exchanges with Scottish National Party MPs in their debate about the nuclear deterrent yesterday. He had previously sought to intervene on Brendan O'Hara, the SNP defence spokesman, who proposed the motion, "That this House believes that Trident should not be renewed." Now Patrick Grady, SNP MP for Glasgow North, tried to intervene:

John Woodcock: If the hon. Gentleman does not mind, I am not giving way. I would have been happy to take an intervention from every single one of you robots—you are getting your instruction—but the proposer of the motion refused point blank to take my intervention, so I am not taking any from a single one of you.

John Nicolson: On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. May we have some clarification on whether the charming expression “robot” is parliamentary language or not?

Madam Deputy Speaker: Yes, Mr Nicolson, I was just turning over in my mind whether the description “robot” for a Member of this House would be considered derogatory. I have come to the conclusion that in some circumstances it might, and in some it might not. For the moment, I am concluding, for my own peace of mind, that the hon. Gentleman was thinking of a high-functioning, intelligent robot. Therefore, for the moment, I will not call him to order for the use of the word, but I am sure the House will be warned that we should be very careful in our use of language. ...

John Woodcock: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am very happy to refer to SNP Members as honourable robots if that is any help, but robots they are, following their instructions in an extraordinary unity almost never seen before in this place.

Strictly speaking, the Deputy Speaker, Scottish-born Eleanor Laing, should have corrected Woodcock for referring to SNP MPs in the second person, "you robots", when they should have been "those robots". A few moments later several SNP MPs stood again, seeking to intervene.

John Woodcock: If everybody will sit down, I will explain my views. I would have been happy to have taken all these SNP interventions, but the proposer of the motion—the honourable chief robot—refused to allow me to intervene even once, so I will not take their interventions. They would be happy to throw on the unemployment scrapheap—

Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP) rose—

John Woodcock: Madam Deputy Speaker, I will not give way to any of them. I wonder if you can explain that to them. It does not matter how many times they ask, I will not give way to them.

Excessive unity is an unusual criticism, but Philip Cowley points out that the SNP is unusually united and disciplined. That is the trouble with the new politics: you can never be sure whether party whips are a good thing or a bad thing.

• Further to my note about the end of antibiotics the other day, this was interesting from Richard James, Emeritus Professor at the School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham: "I believed we would face an antibiotics apocalypse – until now."

• And finally, thanks to Sage Boggs ‏for the latest on the Republican contest for the presidential nomination:

Jeb Bush: We shouldn't accept refugees.

Donald Trump: We should nuke the refugees.

Ben Carson: Wizards are real and I'm made of butter.