Pretty much, yes......that is the reason.
Bascially, the party can control its MPs much more effectively when they're gathered in person, and MPs can much more easily see who is inclined to vote one way or the other.
Funnily enough, HappyToast was beaten to the idea of remote voting by Thomas Edison back in 1869. It was Edison's first patent - an electric vote recorder:
edison.rutgers.edu/vote.htm
It was rejected. Edison couldn't understand why until a Congressman took him aside and explained that instant voting would be disastrous, for a number of reasons. For a start, it made filibustering impossible. Also, his fellow representatives had to be able to see what their peers were intending to do, to see which way their allies or enemies (potential or actual) intended to vote and modify (if necessary) their intentions accordingly, and to engage in the usual horse-trading of political life. Instant, remote vote recording made all that impossible and for those reasons was hated by both the party whips (or equivalent) and representatives themselves.
After that failure, Edison resolved never again to invent something for which there was not an identifiable need, i.e. from which a profit could be made.
Meanwhile, I have clicked 'Like'!
'Cos I like it.
(,
Wed 29 Feb 2012, 8:58,
archived)
Bascially, the party can control its MPs much more effectively when they're gathered in person, and MPs can much more easily see who is inclined to vote one way or the other.
Funnily enough, HappyToast was beaten to the idea of remote voting by Thomas Edison back in 1869. It was Edison's first patent - an electric vote recorder:
edison.rutgers.edu/vote.htm
It was rejected. Edison couldn't understand why until a Congressman took him aside and explained that instant voting would be disastrous, for a number of reasons. For a start, it made filibustering impossible. Also, his fellow representatives had to be able to see what their peers were intending to do, to see which way their allies or enemies (potential or actual) intended to vote and modify (if necessary) their intentions accordingly, and to engage in the usual horse-trading of political life. Instant, remote vote recording made all that impossible and for those reasons was hated by both the party whips (or equivalent) and representatives themselves.
After that failure, Edison resolved never again to invent something for which there was not an identifiable need, i.e. from which a profit could be made.
Meanwhile, I have clicked 'Like'!
'Cos I like it.