So, with this vote on the evening of Tuesday 12th September 2017, we in the United Kingdom are on our way to having a dictatorship by the Conservative party that is set to bypass parliament! Its about what has become a controversial motion that will grant the government the power to scrutinise Brexit-related legislation without involvement or minimal involvement of the Members of Parliament.
The motion which was brought by Andrea Leadsom, has now passed by 320 to 301 votes. The “ayes” had it and can now bypass parliament to their hearts content.
What does it really mean? Parliament needs to change, amend or import thousands of laws and regulations from the EU statute books to the UK statute books, to prepare us for Brexit. The EU Withdrawal Bill was set up in a way that allows for the new laws and regulations to be passed using the so-called Henry VIII clause, debated in small standing committees.
As a result of this vote, the government will now have a majority on the Committee of Selection, and it is this committee that decides the make up of the other “standing committees”. So even though the Conservatives do not have a Commons majority, the committees that will scrutinise all the laws will now have a Conservative majority. Its gerrymandering by another name, a power grab that will change how parliament works for the rest of this parliament as it can now bypass Parliament on Brexit laws.
You can read the full article here. This is a dictatorship by any other name, is it not?
So much for the #Brexit “taking back control” from the EU to give to our parliament. Now without a referendum, the Tories have taken control away from parliament and given it to themselves. What a #Brexitshambles.
Whilst writing this, I had this feeling of deja vu, and that is because this feeling of dictatorship currently exists in South Cambridgeshire District Council where the Conservatives do hold a m
ajority.
What we are seeing is a situation where it seems decisions are being made at party level behind closed doors, and then presented to full council to vote on or even not. Even the scrutiny committee is overwhelmingly Tory, with Chair and vice chair being Tory, instead of the opposition, completely contrary to good practice recommended by the Centre for Public scrutiny.
But the SCDC administration did away with good practice long ago. A vote in a scrutiny meeting last week was clearly split down the party line which begged the question – had the decision already been made? One cannot but wonder.
Governance in this country is long overdue for an overhaul. It is madness. Someone once said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. The Tories are leading this country astray having swung to the extreme right ….. Labour have gone completely the other way to the extreme left. What we need is something in the centre to strike a balance.