Of Erskine May and Brexit

Only in Britain.

Only in Britain is there a mechanism for Parliament to force the Government of the day do something it doesn't want to do. IN order fo it to work, the Government would have to be weak, the subject important enough to unite opposition parties and a few Tory MPs too.

Today, all those came to pass, and a Labour motion under the Erskine May Parliamentary Practice on the 58 Impact Assessments on the various tones of Brexit was passed, unopposed by the Government.

If the Government were to ignore this, it would be in Contempt of Parliament, and in theory could be sent to the Tower of London, which is what previous guilty parties have had done. The thought of May and her 28 Ministers of the Crown being marched to the Tower will not happen, sadly.

As it came to pass during the debate, not only had May not read the assessments, not had any ministers. They might have read the summaries relating to their departments. If the Government were to try to redact parts of the assessments, they would all have to be read to decide what could be put into the public domain. However, it is likely that redacting will not be tolerated, and the whole of all 58 assessments will have to be published. And soon.

So, now we wait for publication. And the person who will have to present the assessments to Parliament: Chris Heaton-Harris, author of the infamous letter last week to University VPs on the teaching of anti-Brexit material.

Even worse of the Government, the Conservative Party is currently embroiled in a sex scandal, up to 35 MPs and past and present Ministers may have engaged in inappropriate behaviour; and tonight the Defence Minister, Sir Michael Fallon resigned, less than a week after he sacked several senior Navy officers for, inappropriate behaviour.

If his resignation then leads to his, and other MPs resigning, many by-elections could be called, and the possibility of the Conservative Party losing what little of a majority it already has.

Quite a day for Parliamentary geekery, and a day when Parliament finally woke up and asserted it's sovereignty. It will be some time before anyone can say what this means for Brexit, but this further makes our once fine country look foolish.