I won't deny that I was pleased by yesterday's successful rebellion in the House of Commons. There were three reasons for being so.
First, this was about making clear parliament must be sovereign.
Second, this was about ensuring that there is a real decision making process, and so choice.
Third, this was about the ability of some parliamentarians to realise that there are bigger issues than blind party loyalty.
On all three counts yesterday was a cause for celebration, especially when we have an executive so obviously out of control and unable to protect national interests.
But let's be clear what is not on the cards for celebration, and that is anything as such to do with the chance of Brexit happening: that Juggernaut rolls on unquestioned.
So the sense that something has been achieved is real. But that something relates to the rights of parliament. That is vitally important. But let's not get carried away.
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Not carried away, but carried to Brexit?
Not much of a boost to the negotiations?
This might be the wake up call that country has to come before party.
Leigh Bowden says:
December 14 2017 at 7:27 am
“This might be the wake up call that country has to come before party…”
If so it came too late to dissuade the MPs of the DUP and the Scottish Conservatives from rejecting the amendment 158 which would have curtailed Westminster powers to undermine their national parliaments.
Turkeys voting for Christmas. Party interests 1 National interest nil.
Shameful. At least the DUP got a bung for it, their mess of pottage.
I do hope that David Davies does resign now. He is an embarrassment.
You could not have a chosen a better title for the post.
My worst case scenario of a right wing coup driven by the ERG, Legatum and Atlantic Bridge seems less likely now. The likelihood of a chaotic Brexit seems a bit less likely. I look at the rebel group as 11 heroes who have put country before party. The backlash from the gutter right wing press is as vitriolic as predictable.
I agree
Fourth: Jeremy Corbyn’s strategy of not firing until he sees the whites of their eyes has been vindicated and may now allow much softer brexit in collaberation with tory rebels?
Really?
I’d still consider that a remote chance
Have you seen the front page of the Daily Mail today?
This toilet paper masquerading as a newspaper ought to be closed down now. I hope the Tories concerned keep off their (anti) social media.
Those 11 Tories did the right the thing and have made it easier for Labour to come cleaner about its intentions. I hope that Labour sees it that way. However, the backlash will be unrelenting and increasingly hysterical.
Given the proclivity of the right wing around the world towards violence, I hope that we do not see another Jo Cox style event.
Pilgrim Slight Return says:
December 14 2017 at 11:21 am
“..Have you seen the front page of the Daily Mail today?…”
Certainly not. 🙂
I have…
And I have been in Copenhagen
Here’s the comment I posted on a Facebook page I visit:
The TRULY SHOCKING thing is that as many as 305 MP’s were willing to vote to neuter their own power, and so effectively deny their constitutional role as a) scrutineers of law and the Executive and b) the REAL source of Parliamentary power. It should have been 614 -0, IMO.
Agreed
And where were the rest?
I reccomend listening to the BBC Newsnight interview with Sir Richard Dearlove, ex-head of MI6. He described Britain as “skin-deep members” of the EU, and “shallow” participants in the Union. I believe he is correct in his analysis, and there is the problem. I am one of the 48%; a Scot who values his citizenship of Europe, and who considers citizenship his personal property. Of course I am also, merely, a British subject.
I would not be too excited by this uproar. Let us see what transpires first. I am a sceptic by nature.
More generally Dearlove’s view of British geopolitical strategy, in my opinion, could have been written virtually unchanged (save the details of changing language and the revolution in technology) at any time since the end of WWII, and disguises a suppressed, and perhaps unconscious longing for an age long gone. Self-knowledge is rarely a powerful presence in the self-perpetuating corridors of power that he stalked. Dearlove thinks Britain being opportunist is a sign of wisdom and flexibility; but beneath it all there is something more like a coelacanth; another example of a living fossil. The importance of the Dearlove interview is the window it opens, briefly, on what passes for “thought” in certain influential British political circles.
The typos continue: recommend.
Thanks
I thought the interview exposed how the establishment ?, or certainly the security element of it prize being America’s security ally above everything else- hence Dearlove’s support of Brexit. I imagine he’s sufficiently financially secure not to be worried about the fallout and seems to have no care whatsoever of the average UK citizen. This obsession with America has been nothing but disastrous for UK in my opinion.
I think you’re rather missing the point here
Alib says:
“This obsession with America has been nothing but disastrous for UK in my opinion.”
I agree, but I suggest we ain’t seen nuffink yet.
I see it as the most dangerous and damaging outcome of distancing ourselves from Europe. Bear in mind we will be second to Israel in the pecking order of favoured satellite states.
Some sort of ‘control’ we will be regaining. harumph!
I appreciate your concern about this Andrew but I am not shocked by this statistic at all.
It indicates once again the corrosive effect that BREXIT thinking has on democracy.
The politicians are either scared of going against BREXIT for fear of losing their seats or do not want parliament to make the decision so that its effects and consequences can be blamed on the current Government alone.
I’d love top be a fly on the wall in Parliament.