Sunday 1 September 2019

Oh, the constitutional outrage!

Brexiteers do like to whinge.

Oh no, proroguing Parliament is normal. Yes, for a few days, to allow arrangements for the State Opening Ceremony to be made. Five weeks is not normal.

Not even all ministers can keep to the script and have admitted that the suspension, becasue that is what it is, is to stop scrutiny of the Government and to roalroad through no deal Brexit.

But this is not the first time the constitution has been trashed by this Conservative Government, both Johnson and May have, and thanks to @davidallangreen for these:

Secretaries of State repeatedly misled the House and its committees over the extent and existence of Brexit sector analyses reports.

The government prolonged the current parliamentary session over two years, so that there would not be a Queen's Speech.

The government packed committees with Tory majorities, even though it is a hung parliament, by procedural sleight of hand.

The government repeatedly ignored and did not even participate in votes on opposition motions.

And then disregarded the motions passed.

The government sought to make the Article 50 notification without any parliamentary approval whatsoever, and forced litigation to go all the way to the Supreme Court so that parliament could have that approval.

The government committed itself to billions of pounds of public expenditure in a blatant bribe to the DUP for support in a supply and confidence vote.

The government repeatedly sought to circumvent or abuse the Sewell convention in its dealings with the devolved administrations.

The government sought to legislate for staggeringly wider "Henry VIII powers" so that it could legislate and even repeal Acts without any recourse to parliament.

The government became the first administration in parliamentary history to be held to be in contempt of parliament.

The government stood by when there were attacks on the independent judiciary and the independent civil service.

"Enemies of the People".

"Traitors".

The government deliberately broke the pairing convention, in respect of an MP on maternity leave, so that the the government could win a vote.

The government gave serious consideration to blocking a duly passed Bill from obtaining Royal Assent.

The government has now locked the doors of parliament for five weeks in the crucial run-up to a no deal Brexit, just to avoid scrutiny and adverse legislation.

Today a senior cabinet minister refused to commit the government to complying with any laws passed by parliament.

And the response of government supporters to anyone disturbed by this pattern of increasingly serious constitutional wrongs?

"Hysterical".

But these concrete examples show there is something serious to be worried about.

Something bad is happening, and it has to be stopped.

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