In the UK nobody votes for the party they want. Instead they vote against the party they don't want. But, having said that, the party system is the only link between the People and Democracy, because it at least tries to hold a governing party accountable to the promises made in an election.
Now, even that weak link has been all but snapped by the extremely irregular proceedings in Parliament.
As reported by the Guardian:
Theresa May’s room for manoeuvre should her Brexit deal be rejected next week was further constrained on Wednesday night, after the government lost a second dramatic parliamentary showdown in as many days.
An increasingly boxed-in prime minister must now set out her plan B within three working days of a defeat next Tuesday, after the rebel amendment passed.
There were furious scenes in the House of Commons as the Speaker, John Bercow, took the controversial decision to allow a vote on the amendment, tabled by the former attorney general Dominic Grieve.
A string of MPs, including the leader of the house, Andrea Leadsom, repeatedly intervened to question the Speaker’s approach. Some accused him of being biased against Brexit.
But parliament went on to back Grieve as the prime minister was defied by Conservative rebels determined to hand control of the Brexit process to MPs if next week’s vote is lost.
The reason this latest parliamentary vote is significant is because the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, who is supposed to be impartial and neutral, broke with precedent to seriously undermine Party control and therefore the entire basis of Britain's Democratic system.
As the BBC's Parliamentary Correspondent Mark D'Arcy explained:
I don't want to delve too deeply into the arcana of Business of the House motions only amendable by ministers of the Crown, but this drove a coach and horses through accepted normal practice, and will have huge implications for the course of Brexit.
The decisions will come much faster, and potentially, those plotting an alternative course to the PM's would have more space in which to work.
And it may also set a sweeping precedent allowing MPs far more grip over their debates, on Brexit and pretty much anything else.
If such a precedent can be made to stick, it would be a huge blow against any government's accustomed control over the business of the Commons.
It is well known that the vast majority of Britain's serpent political class do not favour Brexit, and that many of them will do anything to undermine it, including betraying the 52% of the electorate who voted for it in 2016.
The decision by Parliament to place a three-day limit on the announcement of the government's Plan B makes a betrayal of Brexit much more likely.
But also, the decision -- by greatly weakening the Party system and setting a dangerous precedent -- effectively makes Parliament (i.e. the political class) sovereign over the People, rather than the other way round, as it should be.
The only way that the People can exert control over their elected representatives is through judging them on their Party manifesto promises, and by then replacing a dishonest or unsuccessful Party with its rival. This is a far-from-perfect system but the only semblance of democracy that the UK has.
This latest controversy -- along with much else that has happened due to Brexit -- has cut across the conventional Party lines, and has therefore eroded British democracy.
The decision by the Speaker to allow the amendment forcing the PM to announce her plan B within three days, limits the PM's room for manoeuvre and greatly weakens her. This makes it increasingly likely that the government will collapse and resign, leading to a general election, or else a second referendum (i.e. mass media gas-lighting campaign).
The role of the mass media should not be discounted in this latest breakdown of the Party system either.
The 17 rebel Conservative MPs who voted with Labour and the Scottish Nationalists to defeat the government may well have been riled up to rebel by the media hysteria created over the Anna Soubry incident.
This was essentially fake news: Soubry is a sour-faced, anti-Brexit Conservative MP. On Wednesday (9th Dec) she received a few, harmless verbal insults from Brexit supporters. Nothing serious happened, but of course the globalist-controlled media went into full Reichstag Fire mode, as if an anti-Brexit MP being called a "Nazi" was the worst thing to ever happen.
As reported by the globalist-owned Sun newspaper:
As reported by the globalist-owned Sun newspaper:
Dozens of MPs have written to the UK’s most senior police officer to raise concerns about safety outside parliament after the Conservative MP Anna Soubry faced chants from protesters on Monday calling her a “Nazi”.
At least 55 parliamentarians signed the letter to the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, after the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, urged officers to do more to protect MPs and Soubry criticised the lack of police response to the abuse.
Scotland Yard later confirmed it had opened an investigation into whether any offences had been committed when chants of “Soubry is a Nazi” could clearly be heard while the pro-remain MP was being interviewed by BBC News on Abingdon Green, a grassed area outside parliament used by broadcasters.
In short, Britain has not only lost what little democracy it had; it has also lost its mind.
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| How shocking -- voters dare to share their opinions with one of their elected representatives. |
I have read your arguments and agree about the further weakening of 'democracy' in Britain brought about by the actions of Grieve/Bercow. But it's worse, for there is no point in escaping the undemocratic nature of the EU if, by this precedent, we merely replace it with the sovereignty of parliament over the people (basically tyranny) at home. What the Speaker has done is to guarantee the further death of 'democracy' whether we leave or not.
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