A Guardian editorial today says, in the context of Boris Johnson's No-Deal Brexit plans as an unelected prime minister heading a minority government:
There is no justification for parliament not sitting at [this] time. It is therefore essential that MPs should be recalled from their summer recess. Holidays must wait or be terminated. Recall is not easy, since the government claims the power over the issue. Mr Johnson — who has also flirted with dismissing parliament from the process altogether — will not allow the Speaker to recall MPs before the scheduled return on 3 September. Both the last Labour government and the Speaker have argued that MPs should also have rights to have parliament recalled, but sadly these opportunities were missed.
Nevertheless, MPs should act as best they can. They should summon up the spirit of France's 18th-century tennis court oath, when politicians pledged not to adjourn until their business was completed. MPs should draw up a petition for a recall and try to get a majority of the Commons to sign up. Legal action should be considered. The House of Lords, the devolved institutions and local councils can all hold emergency sessions of their own on the issue. MPs should consider occupying the Commons chamber to make the case against no deal. Britain needs a summer democratic revolt to isolate the government by every peaceful means possible. This country's future must not be sacrificed upon the altar of Brexit.
Is this the time for parliamentary rebellion? If not now, what better reason might there ever be?
Give it a week or so and every MP can have had a holiday. Then they need to be back at work. There is no excuse for a long absence at this time of national crisis. And yes, they should rebel if need be.
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The civil servants are all having to work excessive hours to take forward the “no deal”. I cannot imagine as ex NHS having been allowed to go on holiday in an equivalent crisis. Whilst the Guardian is making the case I haven’t heard anything reported from MPs agitating to go back to Parliament. And MPs wonder why they are held in such low esteem.
Ian Blackford has written a letter calling for an urgent summer recess meeting
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/ian-blackford-we-need-cross-party-summit-to-stop-no-deal-brexit/ar-AAFjXN1
I think he did make mention in a PMQs of need of having a shorter recess but I can’t find evidence link.
He’s right
Hear; hear
The biggest UK crisis since WW2 some say?
But not so much as prevents MPs on hols.
Worse still for me they just seem to continue to criticise each other rather than proacitive rhetoric?
No chance Mr Murphy.
August in Europe is a dead month. Holidays are sacrosanct to all mainland Europeans and this increasingly applies in recent times also to the British and –especially–their political class.
There is no way anybody is going to get recalled apart from war or a nuclear emergency
The Times headline today is “Boris planning a people versus the Politicians election” . How hypocritical of him !
I wish I knew what exactly the stop no-deal or stop brexit people were planning. A friend just told me that only the PM or head of state can request an Art 50 delay. Johnson would refuse to do that. If Johnson lost a vote of confidence, he is given a stay of execution of 10 days (?). Then what? An election or a coalition? How long does that take? Does UK fall over the cliff for lack of time to stop it while no one is in charge? If someone is keeping their powder dry, I do hope it is excessively powerful powder!
The honest answer is that no one really knows anything anymore. I read too many conflicting claims to be sure that there is anything close to a consensus right now precisely because we are in wholly uncharted territory.
When Dominic Grieve looks to the Monarchy to rescue Parliament you know the Constitution itself is in deep trouble. It is surprisingly overlooked that Brexit has not just destroyed the substance of the British Political Party system (reducing both Conservative and Labour Party to pulp, and allowed an irresponsible, feckless Prime Minister to be elected directly into Downing Street by a wholly inappropriate, inadequate minor-league gerontocracy); but Brexit has revealed the Constitution to be not just unfit for purpose but to be slowly disintegrating under the pressure, and before our eyes. The reliance of the Constitution on ‘conventions’ over ‘law’ has collapsed under the pressure of genuine and determined (rather than ‘faux’, rhetorical) political conflict in the hands of hard-faced Brexit zealots.
On the return of Parliament, it has taken too long for the political resistance to Brexit and the ERG to recognise the scale and seriousness of the problem, still less organise itself. Article 50 and Brexit is dependent first on Parliament having a coherent, secure and viable policy. That is not dependent on European holidays, it requires first that Parliament sits until it resolves what is its policy. This is merely an illustration of the paralysis of our politics, compounded by the anachronism of our out-of-date, dysfunctional constitution. Parliament in our system is “sovereign” (for Dicey its power was as absolute as a Czar of Russia); only quite clearly it is not, and unable to cope with the scale of the problem with which it is faced. Parliament’s absolute sovereignty has disappeared ‘just like that’, suddenly and without anybody noticing. There is only one conclusion to be drawn by something quite as transparent and fundamental as Parliament’s haplessness. The Constitution has frankly (and obviously) failed; not only our politicians, but our decrepit Constitution itself is leading us to catastrophe.
Agreed
Sign me up! And don’t start until I get down there.
what follows is a bit left field but I would be interested to hear a reaction. (all my own work).
Parliamentary Oath
“I (name of Member) swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.”
Queen of what – exactly?
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth: i.e. “the crown”.
Argument
By aiming for a “no-deal exit from the EU” the current Tory government (& those who voted in a new leader of the Tory party) are taking actions knowing that these actions could/will lead to a break up of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Specifically, a no-deal exit has provided the Scots (who voted remain in the referendum) with reason to demand a second referendum.
There is a high possibility that this time the Scots will vote for independence.
The current government knows this, it has met with the Scottish government.
In the case of Northern Ireland, a no-deal exit has stimulated the desire for a border poll i.e. a referendum on N.I united with the Republic of Ireland.
Both events are foreseeable and known to the current Tory government which continues to press for a no-deal exit.
Treason: Definition
Under the law of the United Kingdom, high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Crown.
Oath breakers
The oath of loyalty to the crown is an oath to up-hold the status quo with respect to the integrity of the crown & what it encompasses – in this case: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The current tory government knows that its current course of action threatens the territorial integrity of the crown.
Furthermore, it could take alternative action which would avoid this threat. For a range of reasons, it chooses not to take these actions.
At best the MPs supporting the government are oath breakers (ditto the government).
At worst the government, its supporters and those that elected the current Prime Minister are guilty of high treason by knowingly following a course of action (that is avoidable) & thus threatening the integrity of the crown & by extension showing disloyalty to the crown. Similar arguments could be applied to the UKIP party.
Note; the key point is that the current gov wants to follow a no-deal exit whilst knowing that there are alternatives – which would reduce the threat to the integrity of the crown.
It is not following these for purely political reasons i.e. it is putting party before the country and crown.
Does treason still carry the death penalty?
Death penalty: not since 30 September 1998, when the section 36 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force.
Not that advocacy for or against Brexit, or Scottish independence, or abolition of the monarchy, or any other mainstream peaceful political view, is treason in any event.
People who rail against traitors and treason in this context are poisoning the debate – and deliberately so, I suspect.