Parliamentary Whips, while capable of whipping up support, seem more often to be used to keep unruly backbenchers "in line". Similar to how bullockies used their whips to keep the team moving in the right direction; a good bullocky could do it without the whip actually touching any member of the team, but focussing attention by cracking the whip near a miscreant's ear.

"Fair crack of the whip" has now been replaced, it seems, by "Fair suck of the sauce bottle".

And the Americanism "Step up to the the plate" seems to have replaced both "Step up to the crease" and "Step up to the mark"; even "Toe the line" seems to have gone out of favour.

Cheers, Rowan