Prorogation

Prorogation

Noun

meaning:

the action of discontinuing a session of a parliament or other legislative assembly without dissolving it.

The media has worked itself into a frenzy over the prorogation of Parliament. The fact is that prorogation is an entirely legitimate mechanism of Parliament.

The other salient fact is that Parliament hasn't had a Queen's speech (and with it any new legislation) for THEE YEARS.

For the past two years critics have been saying that Parliament has been paralysed by Brexit and they are right. No new legislative proposals have come out of government for three years. Current legislation harks back to a time when the Maybot scraped through the election. That's before article 50 was enacted, before any deals had been done, before chequers, before the Olly Robbins stitch-up, before the withdrawal agreement, before the backstop.

All we have had in the intervening time, is Parliament and private individuals like Gina Miller attempting to stop Brexit and thwart the role of the government enacting the very thing the people had told them to enact. .i.e. leaving the EU.

It's been Brexit, Brexit, Brexit. It's time to settle the matter and move on.

The media is calling it a government coup.
How can it be, when all the government are doing is suspending Parliament until the Queen's speech. There are no tanks on the lawns of Westminster, there are no soldiers barring MPs entry to the Houses of parliament. They will have plenty of time to debate whatever new agreement comes out of talks between Boris Johnson's government and the EU.

What they won't have time for is unnecessary shenanigans like votes of confidence and other delaying tactics put in place by MPs.
 The media are calling it undemocratic. How can it be undemocratic to move ahead and leave the EU when commanded by the people? The referendum was the biggest democratic exercise in UK history. The biggest ever vote. The people spoke. How can it be undemocratic to follow their instructions?

I suggest that the Johnson government needs to let dissenting anti-Brexit MPs in leave-voting constituencies understand in no uncertain terms that they will not get the PMs full support and they will be left to fight against the Brexit party on their own.

Where MPs have voted in accordance their leave-voting constituency, I believe that the Brexit party should leave well alone.

The rump of remain constituencies should feel the full force of a Brexit party PR campaign, blasting out the message that despite them voting to remain in the EU, the majority voted to leave. The majority decision, like all previous majority decisions in political history, should be carried by the government of the day and those that voted leave have no mandate to thwart the view of the majority.

The result of the referendum was clear, with no ambiguity: the people of the UK wish to leave the EU. The government has leeway in HOW they leave the EU, but leave it they must. And leave it in a way that satisfies the electorate, otherwise they will not be in government after the next election. Boris Johnson understands this and is trying his best to move forward with the will of the people.

Its something that Theresa May, the House of Lords, Gina Miller and all the anti-Brexit MPs in the commons fail to understand.

Is Voting Enough?

In days of yore, when we had elections and referenda, the people voted and the winning vote won the days and the outcome was enacted. Either the party that won most votes got into power, or the winning majority in a referendum had their side of the argument enacted.

But not now it seems.

These days, it seems that everything is fluid.

On referenda: Brexit didn't carry the day, the voters didn't know what they were voting for, it's only advisory... etc.

On general elections: elected MPs can change parties with impunity even to a party with a manifesto in complete opposition to the one they were voted into office on and still stay as an MP without triggering a bye-election.

It seems the ordinary people doing the voting don't count. The votes don't matter.

So is voting enough? Do we have to do something besides voting in order to underpin our democratic decision?

Are Parliament forcing the hand of the people by ignoring the will of the people?

I  leave it to you dear reader as to what that "something else" is besides voting. Whether it's activism, protesting or direct violence against those that deny democracy, I can't say.

But, it seems that something in addition to voting is now necessary in order to enforce the result of a public vote.

We truly do live in unprecedented times. Very certainly post-democratic ones.

Unless we do more than "just" vote.....

Project Fear Releases the Hammer of Yellow...

It seems this weekend there was a serious leak in Government. The most loosely guarded secret is who actually leaked the "Project Yellowhammer" documents. The why is obvious: to cause panic and add fuel to the remainer fire.

In the end, all it does is describe a few worst case scenarios. Good. So we all know the worst that could happen. Now produce a plan that prevents the worst case scenario from occurring.

All it is, is good project management: expect the worst and plan to avoid it.

But of course all the remoaners are now saying "I told you so" and predicting even more dire consequences of a no deal Brexit that the best minds of Yellowhammer could come up with.

Mass suicides, Sinkholes, Armageddon, nuclear war, the return of the Devil incarnate: all could appear because we leave the EU according to the hysterical media. (I must remember to check Nigel Farage for evidence of cloven hooves the next time I meet him).

In the end, fuck all is going to happen. If the Frogs want to close the channel ports, let them. If the Dutch do the same under EU orders, so what?

We have links to Norway if necessary and if the EU strongarm them into blockading our products too, them we will turn our backs on Europe and cut them loose.

I always thought that freedom from the anti-democratic EU would come at a price. I understood that price was worth paying. In times gone by that would have meant pulling on a uniform, grabbing a rifle and if necessary paying the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom and democracy.

Brexit means we go without French wine and cheese for a while until they come to their senses. Hardly a national crisis (unless you live in Chelsea).

If the worst comes to the worst, we start buying British produce. Those firms that export will have to quickly reconfigure and start to export to everyone except the EU. Those that are unable to do so may just be the weakest of the bunch and may deserve to wither.

The company that I work for imports from the European mainland, but we also import the bulk of our products from outside the EU. So our customers may go without some parts from Germany for a while until trade routines can be re-established. We get a delivery a month and hopefully it won't take longer than 4 weeks for the EU to come to terms with the lack of UK money paying for EU products.

We need to grow a spine Britain, we need some testicular fortitude and as long as we know the pitfalls, we can plan for them and mitigate the effects of a closed EU border.

Fuck 'Em.

And Fuck the spineless bastard that released the Yellowhammer documents in an attempt to create panic.