The vote was division no. 74, November 2: . It was on an amendment to the Bill, not the Bill itself (the amendment would have required the prosecution to prove that a statement was intended to incite terrorism, rather than that it might have that effect, in order to secure a conviction). The original result announced was Ayes 299, Noes 300. Had Galloway attended he would have voted Aye and the result would have been declared a tie at 300, but the Speaker would have given his casting vote to the Noes in line with precedent that a tie on an amendment is broken in the direction of the Bill as originally introduced. (It subsequently turned out that the tellers had counted one extra MP as voting Aye and the result was actually 298 to 300, but that is not particularly relevant)

The point for the mention is not that Galloway's absence actually deprived the opposition of the chance to defeat the government, but that following the vote, many people said that it did. Given the high profile which Galloway gave to this aspect of politics, it was not surprising that his absence was particularly noteworthy.  | Talk