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Nicely put Ali. Timing is paramount. I know Linda learned from Alice and was very careful when she first got elected, not to just rebel straight off. There was a vote on ID cards, instead of saying straight out that she was against them, she asked them to convince her. She 'kept an open mind' right up to the vote. Nothing they told her convinced her and she could not, in good conscience vote for it. Her Constiuency party had moved to oppose it and she would have been betraying the people who selected her and to whom she has to answer had she voted with the government.
This of course is why so many do rebel. They aren't solely answerable to whitehall, they also have their local party to think of. Since the local parties are almost all to the left of Blair this can lead to problems. I know of one local MP who voted for something that her local party had been dead against. She had told them she would vote against but then was 'persuaded' to support the government. her local party weren't happy. They felt betrayed and summoned her to explain herself.
*grins* my but it's a sordid little game is politics. No less so at the local level than the national. I could tell you stories that would curl your toes P
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