Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Parliament to Get Up-Or-Down Vote on Brexit Deal
The British government caved in to Tory rebels and the opposition yesterday when it announced both Commons and Lords would get an up-or-down vote on the final deal between Britain and the EU governing relations after the country leaves the trading bloc. This announcement came th day before the committee stage of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill begins. While there will be no chance for amendments nor will there be a hope of stopping the actual departure, the concession points up just how weak the government is. Theresa May is Prime Minister right now only because no one else in the Conservative Party wants the poisoned chalice the job represents.
The BBC explains, “The EU Withdrawal Bill is entering its Committee stage - meaning MPs will scrutinise it line-by-line in the House of Commons. The debate is set to last for two days this week, although no crucial votes are expected. There will be six more days of debate at a later date. But if the bill passes this stage, it still has a long way to go. It will return to the House of Commons with any additional amendments for its report stage and then will have a third reading in front of MPs. The bill will then have to go to the House of Lords for scrutiny before it can gain Royal Assent and become law.”
More than 470 amendments are currently tabled, running to 186 pages, and each of these will have to be considered. Some will collapse straight away, while others might linger in the Parliamentary process. The government has already made a concession by giving a vote on the final deal. It would not surprise one if further concessions become necessary to get the bill through.
The purpose of the bill should be a housekeeping matter. It copies current EU law into British law so that on the first day out of the EU, the legal framework under which businesses operated remains in place. That is quite sensible, despite the quite valid criticism that this allows ministers to alter the law without going through Parliament. Given the general mess Brexit is going to make of the country, this particular short cut has more benefits than disadvantages.
Nevertheless, the bill is not merely housekeeping because the government has denied Parliament a chance to participate in the negotiation of the final deal with the EU. If Ms. May led a majority government, perhaps that wouldn\'t matter. But she is PM because Ulster Unionists are keeping the Tory minority in power on a confidence and supply basis – that is, they vote with the Tories if it really matters but otherwise, they do as they please. What should have been done is the creation of an all-party negotiating team that would have decided among all the parties just what Britain was trying to achieve. It would have been very messy, but it would also have sped the process along.
The discussion of the bill, then, has become a proxy for discussion of Britain\'s future and Britain\'s ties to the Continent after Brexit. With opinions ranging from the pro-Brexit Tories who want as hard a departure as possible to the Liberal Democrats who want to scrap the entire concept of leaving, the debate is going to be a tricky one. Conservative Party whips will have to keep a close watch on back-benchers at ever division.
Meanwhile, the actual discussions in Brussels are not going very well. “Theresa May has asked for talks. She knows the negotiations are in a decisive phase,” said Manfred Weber, leader of the moderately right-wing European People\'s Party in the European Parliament. “In the coming weeks we we will see whether a constructive outcome is possible or whether the uncertainty will continue to grow. In December it doesn’t look like we will be entering into the second phase.” That second phase is what Britain wants to discuss most, but until citizens’ rights, the Northern Irish border and the financial settlement show signs of agreement approaching, nothing else will be discussed. That is the EU position, and the Tories can not do much about it.
This journal is concerned that there might not be a deal on Brexit Day, in which case, Parliament will have nothing on which to vote, rendering both Houses irrelevant.
© Copyright 2017 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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