It has become perceived wisdom that we are heading for a ‘people vs parliament’ election. But that is a false construct. Who gets to sit in parliament is the one matter in our political system over which the people have almost total control. The battle currently underway is to limit the powers that parliament has – putting certain issues beyond the reach of democratically-elected politicians. At its heart lies a fear of democracy, a fear of the decisions that people might make when more of UK life is under the control of those sent to parliament by UK voters. It is worth looking at this democrophobia in some detail, as it is an ailment that afflicts both Labour and Tory MPs and lies behind much of current political debate.
The arguments against Boris Johnson’s EU Withdrawal Bill offer a classic case in point. The Labour front bench refuses to support the Bill on the grounds they feared it would lead to the erosion of workers’ rights. It equates repatriation of controls to the abolition of such controls.
So here’s the evidence. From the Government. The reason why Boris Johnson wanted to strip all the legal protection for workers rights out of the deal is really straight forward. It’s because he wants to be able to cut workers rights. https://t.co/xlrG6VTeUa
In Britain, we leave politics to the politicians, and law to the lawyers
A cross-party group of MPs have tabled an amendment demanding that environmental standards will not be watered down. Yet the Withdrawal Bill is not about either issue: it simply sets out the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU. It would mean that such issues can be decided in future by Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson, or whoever the next leader is. So the attempt to have these laws inserted now, and mandated at the European level, makes sure they cannot be changed by a new Prime Minister later.
You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it
Like many teenage girls, I was a committed boy-sniffer. By which I mean a Lynx-sniffer, since this delightfully cheap but heady deodorant was synonymous with all the raging hormones – and the promise that went with them. Even the geekiest, ugliest, runtiest of the litter could be transformed into an object of mystique and allure
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