Constitution matters

Last week, Labour MP Dawn Butler, was ejected for the House (of Commons) for the rest of the day's business after pointing out, with actual facts, that the Prime Minister had lied. And does lie.

The ridiculous situation is that Johnson, can lie, and not suffer any consequences, either from breaking the rule of the House of Commons, Erskine May, but someone pointing out the lies can be ejected.

And until that situation is corrected, democracy will be in peril.

In Erskine May, it says, essentially, that chaps shouldn't accuse chaps, even when there is strong evidence to back that up.

But on lying, especially the PM, it says that that should be considered Contempt of Parliament, but with no actual tariff attached. Convention states, that if a Member makes a misleading statement, then they should return at the earliest opportunity to correct the record. Johnson has made many such misleading statements to the House, and never corrected the record even when he was invited to, and apparently there is nothing the Speaker can do, nor the House itself.

And the press don't seem to care. Maybe because they think he is batting for "their side", or is still useful, and those that vote for hom, know him to be a liar, and don't seem to care either.

We have a constitution here, and it hasn't made any dfference. For it to work, when someone breaks it, there has to be defined consequences, but opperating under the "good chap" assumption has meant when a bad chap gets in, he can get away with, if not murder, then manslaughter.