This is trouble
brewing
Amidst the other
uncertainties that have occupied my time and space, it was a sense of
powerlessness and numbness that caught me when I read that the Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom had asked the Queen to suspend Parliament. [Channel
4]
This could easily have
been a constitutional crisis, but the decision was purely political, a gambler’s
last stance at a poker table to get #Brexit over the line where the power of
persuasion, the force of argument, the exchange of ideas and robust debate had
failed to bring Parliament over to the intentions, agenda and programme of Her
Majesty’s Government.
A brigandage in
Downing Street
The Prorogation
of Parliament is rarely used in a high stakes drama like this, almost never
in living memory except for peers of the super-septuagenarian set. It is in
this case an act of malevolent Machiavellian statecraft that would have
far-reaching consequences for the way the traditions of our parliamentary
democracy can be gamed in the interest of ideology over national interest.
The Queen by terms
has the prerogative power but is bound
to act on the advice of her government and the Privy Council. Whilst she
might offer advice, the monarchy has the solemn duty to be above the fray that
it cannot interfere even of she as a person and sovereign of our nation has had
the great fortitude of inviting 14 Prime Ministers to form a government since
she was enthroned in 1952. Sir Winston Churchill was her first.
A disorderly mess
Our distorted, rancorous,
and disorderly exit from Europe has left many carcases in its wake, we are on
our third Prime Minister and for over three years, not one side of the people’s
representation in Parliament has been able to claim a decisive victory in the
quest for either exiting or remaining in Europe.
An advisory
referendum, poorly implemented, badly fought and corruptly won has hamstrung the
country and sucked oxygen out of any viable activity in the UK, yet, the creed
stands strong in the hurtling down this precipice in a display of everything
redolent of English bloody-mindedness.
Europe is not the
problem
I do not believe that
Europe has ever been the problem, it is the people we have sent to Europe that
has left us with a raw deal. Where other nations sent their best, we found the
eccentric, the rabble-rousers and fringe politicians to negotiate on our
behalf, the likes of Nigel Farage whose penchant for insult, rudeness and cringe-worthy
soundbite would never have with the best ideas in the world be able to win a
consensus or an agreement in any committee.
He, as a member of
the fisheries committee only attended 1 of 42 sittings, and he had to audacity
to board a fishing boat throwing dead fish in the Thames to make the point
about seizing back control of our waters.
We, as an electorate
have ourselves to blame the most, those who came out to vote won over by
questionable arguments, those who allowed apathy to rob them of a say in how
they are governed has led to a representation of gamblers. David Cameron,
Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, they all owe their rise to people
gambling on their future or hoping their single vote can send a message, which
is fine, but many messages can end up choosing the wrong representative and
lead us down the road to an uncertain future as Brexit portends.
How Europe gives
clout
Being in Europe still
matters, the evidence of that is in how the Republic of Ireland with just 4.9
million against the almost 70 million of the UK has clout by reason of being
backed by the heft of the EU-27, the UK stands alone looking in from the
outside with an outsized view of her influence that was progressively lost
after two World Wars.
All the trade deals
we now want to negotiate after Brexit, we already have as part of the European
Union, we are not going to get better deals than those that the EU has already
won with hard bargaining, the numbers, the skill and the statesmanship. The UK
in the hands of these peddlers of vacuous optimism who have the temerity to
question our patriotism when we challenge their baseless assertions leaves one
terrified of the future.
Not this cacophony of
jesters
Yet, we are full of fight,
the last has not been heard of this matter, for if at any time there was a
leader of the calibre of Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee or Margaret Thatcher
amongst this lot, there might have been a slight chance that they can pull off
a successful Brexit, I doubt a hundred of them together can successfully manage a
piss up in a brewery, they would likely piss away our future on the altar of
privileges they have come to expect as their entitlement to rule without taking
responsibility for any failings.
The Parliament is
supposed to be sovereign. At this juncture, where the country faces a momentous
decision as to our future, we have a Prime Minister who has no electoral
mandate putting the mother of all Parliaments in the cooler to allow his government
carry the country divided as it is through to a conclusion many of his cohort
including himself have severally said to be anathema.
We already have the
best deal
A no-deal Brexit is
the worst-case scenario with no upside to it as the pound languishes at about
25% below its value before the Referendum, businesses are closing or moving to
Mainland Europe, EU citizens who have made their home in this country are none
the wiser of their status post-Brexit and the retired Brits out on the
Mediterranean coasts of Europe and further afield in the Canaries have to
contend with unnecessary geriatric anxiety.
For those who want to
leave and those who wish to remain, we have a greater issue at stake, the
reckless abuse of and usurpation of power by the executive in silencing the
elected representatives of the people with the revising chamber for the
presumed will of the people, which first was advisory, which was superseded by
a general election, which should have had the full-throated agitations of the
Parliament and having not won the argument, the government should have conceded
defeat or sought another mandate.
We will fight this
This is a travesty and
I believe there will be civil unrest for the fact that if taking back control
was not to give it back to the sovereign Parliament, but for the executive to
arrogate those powers to itself, our democracy is at an impasse and we need to
revisit the fault lines of the separation of powers and how the Parliament
should by rights be able to hold the executive to scrutiny and sanction for
every action they take in the name of the people.
