What a mess! How on earth can we be easy with the decision to close our parliament down for five weeks? For some it may well be a relief that we don’t have to listen to all the arguments daily but for many of us it feels very wrong at a time when major decisions must be taken.
Boris wanted an early general election to strengthen his position but the house denied him this resoundingly so he closed it down! It looks bad to those of us who live here but what the rest of the world can be making of it does not bear thinking about.
When my children were small one of our neighbours had a badly disabled son. Playing out during the summer months meant games of cricket fairly frequently and I was pleased with my children when they treated John with considerable sympathy but occasionally if thwarted he would throw a temper tantrum when all the games were stopped as John literally took his bat home. This is how I feel about yesterday’s events in Parliament. Mr Johnson failed to get what he wanted so he closed it all down...he took his bat home...for five weeks! The MPs have been silenced...but only in the House.
MPs are this morning announcing that they are standing down, not prepared to play any more...it is all very sad... obviously at this stage of the year it is usually closed down to allow for the party conferences.....but this is different. This feels like a punishment...."You wouldn’t give me what I wanted so now no one will get anything."
The office of speaker has become vacant....our present man has had enough...so this morning we have the first person to declare an interest in the shape of Harriet Harman ... I’m sure more contenders may well be heard in time but a female speaker sounds good to me....except shouting order would never be the same coming from a female mouth...
We live in interesting times....the next weeks are going to be rivetting.
2 comments:
Betty Boothroyd had a formidable manner of making herself heard when she was speaker, so ther is a precedent.
Since however there is no Parliament at present everything is in suspense.
Hopefully the next week or so will see the end of Boris, but who knmows?
Mess is a good description of the situation in Parliament and the country as a whole. Mind you, the shenanigans in parliament has been frustrating as people jockey for position and unlikely alliances are made to try to put parliament in charge, rather than the government.
Whatever happens now, negotiations going on in Ireland with their PM and the DUP, proposes a whole Ireland solution to get rid of the backstop, which at least shows some movement, if not progress. Ireland have so far taken a hard line on the EU position, but their interests differ because of the Peace Deal, which opened the border a good few years ago now. We have always had a tariff free relationship with Eire and free travel and trade, and this agreement predates the EU, so I wonder why we don't hear more about that deal?
A bilateral treaty could ensure that tariffs are not needed in the spirit of that agreement and cut the ground from underneath the those who are demanding a hard border and tariff checks on goods and services (the EU).
Perhaps we can get some commonsense from it, but given the volatility of our politics at the moment, I am not holding my breath.
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