15 Labour MPs have signed a letter arguing that Jeremy Corbyn should reconsider Brexit. That’s not exactly a large nor important matter as you can get 15 Labour MPs to sign a letter calling for absolutely anything. I’m sure you could get 15 of them to sign an Early Day Motion calling for a listening to the very real concerns of Kim Young ‘Un for example. This also isn’t exclusive to the Labour Party:
Pressure is mounting on Jeremy Corbyn to reverse his position on Brexit after 15 more Labour MPs broke ranks to call for a second referendum.
You could, no doubt, get 15 Tory MPs to call for public whippings of teenagers who say “YesbutNobutYes” at the dinner table too.
The London-based MPs signed an open letter demanding a deal that keeps Britain in the customs union and single market — forcing us to continue free movement and banning free trade deals with other countries.
Of course you couldn’t get 15 LibDems to do so as there aren’t 15 LibDem MPs.
They said that London “represents all the most positive elements of being global, outward-looking, welcoming and tolerant, but that was all at risk if Brexit went badly”.
“It cannot be right that 650 MPs alone decide whether to accept the deal, without any say for Londoners or people across the country. That’s why we think it’s essential that there is a people’s vote on the final Brexit deal, so that 65m people can have their voices heard as well.”
All of which is a most amusing argument, isn’t it?
We could say that we don’t live in a direct democracy, but a representative one. That’s fine, that actually is the standard position. Thus it is indeed those 650 who get to decide for the rest of us. We out here only being able to influence matters by deciding who the 650 are going to be. Next time we’re asked of course and who knows what the heck they’ll do by then?
We could also insist that this EU thing is such an important matter that we need to have direct democracy. So, it’s the referendum, not the 650, who decide. That’s also fine. But then if we’ve made that decision then we’ve also got to agree that we’ve already done that, had the referendum and the people have spoken.
We’re leaving.
The argument that the people must be asked again and again until they come up with the right answer is rather too European for the birthplace of democracy, isn’t it?
Its supposed to be 600 soon i believe, and all that i can see it does is increase Government and party patronage power and weaken MP constituency links.
New Hampshire’s unwieldy House is 400. A decade ago, the court ruled that exact numerical representation mattered more than knowing your own legislator, and created a few dozen mega-districts with multiple reps living nowhere nearby. The people amended the state constitution to countermand. The Massachusetts House went from 240 to 160 a few decades ago, in a push by the League of Women Voters; it was lawyers and lobbyists before, and it remains so, unaccountable to the people then and now.
An MP who bucks his party’s position has made news. In the US, it is worth prime-time appearances on multiple cable news networks. As these are leftie, there is no faster route to fame than to be a backstabbing Republican (McCain, Jeb), and the networks will love you, at least up to the moment you run for something big. Whether the British democracy is representative or direct, it rests on the support of the people, and government went to the people with this question and got the answer, despite endless propaganda that it would make them lonely and disliked. There… Read more »
For all his faults Corbyn understands what EU membership means for better than any of those idiots.
He knows that if he listens to them bye bye nationalism of the railways, energy and other assets he has his eyes on for starters.
For all his faults Corbyn understands what EU membership means for better than any of those idiots.
He knows that if he listens to them bye bye nationalism of the railways, energy and other assets he has his eyes on for starters.
Its supposed to be 600 soon i believe, and all that i can see it does is increase Government and party patronage power and weaken MP constituency links.
New Hampshire’s unwieldy House is 400. A decade ago, the court ruled that exact numerical representation mattered more than knowing your own legislator, and created a few dozen mega-districts with multiple reps living nowhere nearby. The people amended the state constitution to countermand. The Massachusetts House went from 240 to 160 a few decades ago, in a push by the League of Women Voters; it was lawyers and lobbyists before, and it remains so, unaccountable to the people then and now.
An MP who bucks his party’s position has made news. In the US, it is worth prime-time appearances on multiple cable news networks. As these are leftie, there is no faster route to fame than to be a backstabbing Republican (McCain, Jeb), and the networks will love you, at least up to the moment you run for something big. Whether the British democracy is representative or direct, it rests on the support of the people, and government went to the people with this question and got the answer, despite endless propaganda that it would make them lonely and disliked. There… Read more »