Just as nowhere that was governed by Spads would have any right to mock the fact that Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella were barely out of school and had never had proper jobs, so nowhere with pairing would have any right to accuse anywhere else of having a pretend Parliament that existed only to serve the Executive.
The Council of Ministers can occasionally be a tougher crowd, although the rarity of that is usually because normal politics had ironed things out before they got that far, but it is true that the European Parliament passes whatever the Commission puts in front of it. So, like the British Parliament, then. Loss of a Government Bill would amount to a vote of no confidence, and therefore never happens. Unless the Government adopted it, then any Private Member's Bill will always run out of time.
The European Parliament cannot propose amendments, but when does the House of Commons ever pass a significant amendment, whether its own or from the Lords, to a Government Bill? To the Budget, it actually cannot do so. When the Government is at risk of defeat due to rebellion on its own side, then the Opposition whips to abstain, or even to vote with the Government. And there is always pairing.
Within this, a Conservative Government has spent the time since Brexit imitating as far as possible the Monégasque National Council, which copies out the laws of France and enacts them as the laws of Monaco. That practice will become even more prevalent in the next Parliament, no matter who had won the General Election.
At the same time, the change in the composition of the European Parliament, soon to be reflected in national governments and thus in a Council of Ministers that already featured the likes of Fidesz and the Brothers of Italy, means that the power to say no, which does exist, may come to be used, as it never would be at Westminster. Legislation would be drafted so as the preclude that by suiting those who might attempt it. In relation to the Council, that already happens.
Therefore, it does indeed matter to Britain who wins European elections. It matters more than who wins a General Election for the privilege of implementing EU legislation in which no one from the United Kingdom had been involved at any stage. Our imperial masters are now to be full-throated Fascists in the proper sense of the word, as some of them already were. Some of them are literally Nazis. Yet anything less than the lowest possible obeisance to them is cranky, extremist deviation from the grownup, sensible moderation of the sacred centre ground, and most likely to be banished from public discourse by being branded "anti-Semitic".
Centrism and right-wing populism are con tricks to sell exactly the same economic and foreign policies to different audiences by pretending to wage a culture war. While pre-existing conservative phenomena have been known to ally with Fascism, usually to their own ruin, it is the liberal bourgeoisie that keeps Fascism in reserve for when it might ever face any serious demand to share its economic or social power with anyone who did not have it before the rise of the bourgeois liberal order, or to share its cultural or political power with anyone at all. EU suzerainty will be one of its myriad means of repressing any such challenge in the Britain of the next five, 10, 15 and 20 years.
We also already have the Far Right in our Parliament, if anything first past the post makes it easier for them to slip in.
ReplyDeleteVery true.
Delete“Loss of a Government Bill would amount to a vote of no confidence, and therefore never happens.”
ReplyDeleteDrivel. Our Parliament defeated Theresa May’s government 33 times and Boris Johnson four times, and the governing party removed them both from office (neither of which could happen in Europe, of course where the elected chamber has no power nor opposition).
The rest of this post is just as hilariously stupid.
The Commons did not deny Second or Third Reading to a Government Bill, which would amount to a vote of no confidence, and in the wildly unlikely event that that might be a serious threat, then the Official Opposition would be whipped to abstain, or even to vote with the Government. Our Parliament has all sorts of powers that it would never, ever use in practice. That is internationally quite typical, and it always amounts to the same thing, never saying no to the Executive.
DeleteThank you for making me laugh heartily with the most ridiculous post I’ve read, even by the standard of blogs. Anyone on the Left who actually understood our glorious constitution such as the late Tony Benn (who always made the comparison between our Parliament and the undemocratic EU system) wouldnt know whether to laugh or cry reading this.
ReplyDeleteEvery sentence is laughable, none more so than “Loss of a Government Bill would amount to a vote of no confidence, and therefore never happens”-on the contrary government bills are defeated in our Parliament all the time, 33 times under Theresa May (which could never happen in the EU). Or this gem “Unless the Government adopted it, then any Private Member's Bill will always run out of time.”
Yes, and in our system “the government” isn’t an unelected Commission but fellow MPs who command a majority in our elected House. And what would be the point of democratic elections if the government we elected didn't have the right to set the legislative agenda?
Thanks for the laughs, Lindsay.
Of course 33 Government Bills were not lost under Theresa May. Did she ever even introduce that many? You do not understand basic terminology.
DeleteThe Council of Ministers and the European Parliament can reject Commission proposals, of course. They just don't. They are like our lot.
"They are like our lot."
ReplyDeleteYou just don't understand our constitution. It literally doesn't matter who sits in the EU Parliament as they have no legislative power and cannot form a government. Whereas our system's also inherently democratic as one can only form a government if one can command a majority in our elected Parliament which also an official Opposition-whereas the real "government" in the EU is the unelected Commission, and their Parliament has no Opposition.
Theresa May lost 33 divisions on government legislation, as I said. British Governments have often lost in divisions on their legislation, withdrawn it before defeat or had to accept rebel amendments to it.
You do not understand basic terminology.
DeleteAnd Theresa May was facing a Leader of Opposition from outside the club. That is never going to happen again.
"The Commons did not deny Second or Third Reading to a Government Bill"
ReplyDeleteYes they did-Boris Johnson's government was defeated by Parliament at the first stage of their legislation to withdraw from the European Union and forced by Jeremy Corbyn to request an extension to the Brexit negotiations, for example. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49573555
Look up "List of Government defeats in the Commons since 1945" and you'll see multiple defeats for the government.
That was a procedural motion. You do not understand basic terminology.
DeleteAnd there is never going to be another Leader of the Opposition from outside the club, so even that is never going to happen again.