Wednesday, 28 August 2019

It could never happen

Over the last four years, many things that we were told could not or would not happen, happened.

Trump winning the GOP nomination.

Trump becoming President.

The referendum.

No deal.

Prorogation.

And yet these, and other impossible things have happened. What whappens over the next two months is unclear. The UK is in uncharted waters.

The UK has a constitution, and it is written down. But it is also spread over hundreds and hundreds of bills of law stretching down the centuries. What we don't have is a codified constitution, which clearly defines the limits of power.

What we have is Erskine May and conventions. The House of Commons "rule book" and Gentlemen's agreements that one party or one House would or would not do in certain situations. Assuming, that all MPs and MPs are Gentlemen, or Gentlewomen, and would abide by conventions.

That was broken yesterday, probably for good. We cannot get that back.

MPs will not be able to trust the Government of the day to do what is right.

Governments govern by the confidence given in them by Parliament, having scrutinised the Government's plans and actions. Parliament has made it clear on three occasions that no deal is unacceptable.

That should be it, that path should be turned from, and agreement reached on where to go now. But that is an effect that neither May or Johnson have conducted Brexit policy with the agreement of Parliament. Meaning the first time scrutiny happened was when they were asked to ratify the WA. They balked, and under the terms of the referendum act, they refused to back it.

Which is where we are now.

A legal battle, many legal battles, begin to save Parliament.

Remember, the last person try to ride roughshod over Parliament ended up having his head removed.

So, these are dark days. I am not saying we should behead the PM, but that is where the UK is right now, a crisis of Civil War sized seriousness.

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