The Thin End

Members of Parliament are supposed to represent our interests. We elect them, and we hold them to account at general elections. Many MPs have outside 'interests', and some get paid handsomely for them. This inevitably creates a conflict of interest.  It begs the question: whose interests do they serve? The former cabinet minister Owen Paterson has declared that he receives a total of £112,000 a year from two firms , on top of his parliamentary salary of £79,000 . Owen Paterson charges them £500 an hour. Let's put that into perspective. The national 'living' wage is just over £8 an hour.  The 'living' wage is what Mr Paterson receives for each minute he is advising these companies!  I wonder to whom he gives priority time: to a constituent on a living wage or the company that pays him so handsomely for that time. Whether or not Mr Paterson has ever misbehaved regarding these interests is not a question we can answer.  But what we do know is that a c...

The sovereignty of parliament is at the heart of the unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom.  It is the key element of our democracy as it has evolved.  We elect our representatives to hold the government to account, and the government is accountable to parliament for its actions.   Parliament is our legislative body.  Governments are formed from parliament and are answerable to it. This is not an invention to thwart Brexit.  It is how our democracy works.  At the last election, all the major parties campaigned accepting the vote to leave in the EU referendum, but they also were committed in their manifestos to doing so with a deal that would protect jobs and our security.   The majority voted for parties committed to a Brexit deal.  Labour's was a customs arrangement and alignment with the single market.   The LibDems offered a similar approach. Accepting the EU referendum result and outlining the type of arrang...

Our executive is answerable to parliament. That is how our system works. We meddle with it at our peril. Boris Johnson has stepped over a line by preventing Parliament from holding him to account, while his government make momentous decisions that will affect all our lives for decades. Boris is not a President, and we are not a Republic. This is why behaving like Trump is unsuitable for our system. Boris is not a President. He is not a head of state. No MP and no Prime Minister should be above the laws made by parliament. Looking for technical dodges to circumvent the will of parliament disrespects our constitution. Whatever our views on Brexit are, we must not allow them to destroy the legislative principles so many have fought for in the past. The United Kingdom has been plunged into a constitutional crisis.   A minority government with no mandate to govern, propped up by the DUP, has effectively stymied debate.  Proroguing parliament for no other reason than preven...

If you listen to Boris Johnson speaking in the Republic of Ireland today you would think he was doing everything to avoid the 'failure' of a no-deal Brexit.   The UK Prime Minister now says a no-deal Brexit would be   "a failure of statecraft for which we would all be responsible." Yet, he still panders to the 'no-deal' lobby back home.  Those who always say 'leave means leave' or that they voted for no-deal. Boris Johnson's position is disingenuous.  He has presented no new ideas for a deal, yet he says 'a deal can be found'. Boris is deceiving the British people, which is why today he is proroguing parliament so he cannot be found out. The 'failure of statecraft' has already been made.  It is made in the failure to address the very real issues arising from Brexit and our relationship with the EU moving forward.   It follows from the consequences of no-deal, with delays at ports leading to the insecurity of food suppl...

Boris Johnson is learning the hard way that the United Kingdom is not a republic, and he is not a President.  In recent decades Prime Ministers have increasingly acted as if they hold all the power.  It is difficult to pinpoint precisely when this took hold.  Prime Ministers have different styles.  Harold Wilson, in general, acted with his cabinet, who at times inflicted defeat on him.   Even Margaret Thatcher consulted her cabinet colleagues, although certainly she towered above everyone and stopped listening. Tony Blair adopted a more presidential style of governance, which led to one of the more trenchant criticisms of the decision to go to war in Iraq.  But Prime Ministers are  'first among equals'.  Of course, they hold power through the patronage they wield.  They appoint and dismiss ministers, and through the leader of the house, they control the legislative agenda.   Taking control of the House of Commons, MPs have remin...

Perhaps there was a feeling that the enormity of the consequences of leaving the EU without a deal would bring sense to prevail. What politician would purposively, knowingly wreck the economy? The warning signs were there. Brexiteers in the Tory party were becoming more strident as they were gaining more hold on the Tory party. They now sit round the cabinet table. They are making the decisions and they control parliament. They are convinced by their own rhetoric. Even now, when all the signs are against it, many believe 'sense will prevail', that it is all tactics and there will be a deal. But whose 'sense' is it that will prevail? Proroguing parliament removes the political machinery for holding the government to account at a time when it makes decisions that will affect our future for generations to come. In doing so they turn our democracy on its head. We had a parliamentary democracy. Today, our government is riding roughshod over it. Our representatives are no l...

The UK government is to ask the Queen to prorogue parliament. It is another move in the game of chess that is Brexit. The stakes are high. Yesterday opposition leaders in parliament agreed to find ways to take hold of the parliamentary agenda so that they could pass legislation to halt a no-deal Brexit. No deal is the default position. All Boris Johnson needs to do is to sit tight and prevent parliament from voting and there will be a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. There is a lot of shouting about parliamentary coups and constitutional crisis. No doubt there will be a legal challenge in the courts. But the sad truth is No-Dealers have the upper hand. That is why Boris Johnson is in No 10 as Prime Minister. Meanwhile, the opposition scurries around and, frankly, can't get their act together. They are still too busy moving their pawns around and ignoring the possibility of CheckMate. What Johnson is doing by proroguing parliament is castling to defend his position. That is...