Obiter has always been impressed seeing professional lobbyist friends in action around a major parliamentary vote, especially when those friends are on the side of the angels. The lobbyists scour parliamentarians’ records and past passions, target MPs with relevant constituency interests, press case studies on those they identify as vulnerable - all the time counting heads in advance of those votes.

But on the legal aid bill, did some MPs fall between the cracks of this approach?

Obiter notices that nobody with the names Philip, Julian, Jeremy, Nigel, Oliver, Elizabeth, Louise, Dominic or Jane was ready to vote against the government when the division bell sounded for key amendment votes. If they could have been turned, Ken Clarke’s majority would have been down to 30.

A campaign message carefully targeted at MPs called ‘Andrew’ (including health secretary Andrew Lansley, pictured), who voted 15:4 in favour of the government, could have resulted in a government defeat by 13 votes, rising to 17 if the Peters (who voted 5:1 for the government) could have been turned.

If there’s one bright spot, however, all this has made Obiter’s task of crossing parliamentarians off our 2012 Christmas card Excel spreadsheet a lot easier this year.