‘Our government structures are derelict’

I think the sentiments in this Caroline Lucas speech during the European Withdrawal Bill debate are worth spreading widely.

All the discretionary ministerial powers are in this bill.

We have thrown away democratic control on the basis of just 44% of the total votes cast.

The ‘mother of Parliaments’ is woefully unfit for purpose and is engaged in passing into legislation what is the mother and father of all suicide notes.

Comments

  1. Andrew (Andy) Crow -

    We’re watching a not-so-slow motion executive power grab.

    We already have established through the Thatcher and New Labour years the habit of direct government from No 10 which large enough majorities make possible. We’re in for another round of micro centralisation. Parliament sidelined and the judiciary brought ‘under control’.

    The Cummings/Johnson will aim to run the country very much as UK Plc with Downing Street operating like a board room.

    The last remaining bulwark against this ‘group dictatorship’ government is the House of Lords. If necessary the Lords can be stuffed as it has always been in the past when the government needed to change the balance in its favour.

    The Cummings propaganda machine will need to be firing on all four cylinders to keep the populus believing it is the will of the people which is being pursued. If they can ‘get Brexit done’, which has now effectively been achieved (for what it’s worth) I doubt there is much that can’t be done in similar manner.

  2. Bill Hughes -

    “Getting it done” is purely illusory on the Tories’ part. It will take years if not decades for all the intricasies of trade deals with dozens of other countries to be completed and involved regulatory systems brought into being. Fortunately for the Tories the public’s gaze will be diverted from this by such things as the Royal family, Trump, Iran and even climate change. By the time it is “done” (if ever) no one will be any wiser and probably the poorer.

  3. Andrew Dickie -

    I make the point I made, maybe here, certainly elsewhere, about %age of TOTAL vote, namely a 44% vote on a 67.3% turnout, as occurred in the December 2019 GE, means we are being dictated to, and having our liberties curtailed at the behest of a mere 29.6% of the electorate.

    Totally unacceptable, given the complaint of many over the smallness of the 51.89% victory for Leave in the EU
    Referendum, for that was on a 72.2% turnout.

    For that constitutes a mere 37.24% of the total electorate – FAR too small a percentage for so significant a change – IMO at least 55%, and preferably 66%, of the total electorate should have been necessary.

    Either way, we are being tyrranised and robbed by a false “majority”. (Which, given the concerns of a 38% level of Postal Voting, wide open to fraud and corruption – see https://redrevolution.co.uk/2019/12/24/postal-votes-the-danger-of-industrial-scale-electoral-fraud/ – may be even more of a false majority)

    1. Peter May -

      I agree. But the Electoral Commission has not yet compiled the exact quantity/proportion of postal votes. I cannot understand what’s keeping them…

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