Yesterday we took the final year Parliamentary Studies students to Westminster for the annual field trip, for a day of talks and Q&A. My favourite exchange came in a session with the Chief Whip, Sir George Young.  He was asked whether there was a formal procedure for removing the whip from an MP.  He replied:

I withdrew the whip from Nadine Dorries. And the formal procedure was: I wrote to her to tell her I had withdrawn the whip from her.

If only all formal procedures were so simple.