Teaching Comparative

More confusion in Commons

Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has quit the cabinet, saying she no longer believes the government's approach will deliver Brexit.

Her resignation comes amid a backlash against Theresa May's Brexit plan from Conservative MPs…

[As Commons leader, she was in charge of organising government business and had been due to announce when the prime minister's Withdrawal Agreement Bill would be introduced to Parliament.]

Her resignation is the 36th by a minister under Theresa May - 21 of them over Brexit…

The move came after a day of drama at Westminster in which anger grew at the prime minister's attempt to win backing for the bill - the legislation needed to implement the agreement between the UK and EU on the terms of Brexit.

As part of it, Mrs May has offered a number of changes, including a chance for MPs to hold a vote on another referendum if they back the bill…

BBC political correspondent Jonathan Blake said… "It is an extraordinary sequence of events for a key member of the Cabinet to resign on the eve of elections.

"It is unlikely that we will see others follow her immediately, but getting into Friday and the weekend, things could move swiftly."…

Labels: Brexit, Commons, leadership, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Renovations for the House

The first images have been released of the proposed temporary home for MPs during restoration work in Parliament.

Architects plan to recreate the current chamber of the House of Commons, including the green benches on which MPs sit, at a new venue in Westminster.

Proposed Commons recreation

The move to Richmond House, the former home of the Department of Health, will not happen until 2025 at the earliest.

The refurbishment of the current Palace of Westminster, due to cost £4bn, will not now be completed until the 2030s.

The repair work is likely to take between five and eight years longer than previously anticipated…

The proposed temporary chamber will be similar to the current one, complete with leather benches and an adversarial layout, but will be more accessible…

The work is expected to include replacing old cabling, installing a new sewage system and improving disabled access to the estate.

Both the Commons and Lords agreed in early 2018 that the most cost-effective way to carry out the upgrades would be for them to move out whilst the works are being done…

A committee of MPs and peers will also be set up to scrutinise the spending plans alongside the Treasury.

Former Clerk of the Commons Lord Lisvane said work was needed urgently as it was "a matter of time" before something happened to the parliamentary estate.

"I'm afraid there has been a certain amount of foot-dragging and my message now would be emphatically, crack on with it," he told the BBC…

Labels: history, political culture, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Local elections in the UK

The Conservatives and Labour have faced a backlash at the ballot box over the Brexit deadlock, with smaller parties and independents winning seats.

In England so far, the Tories have lost more than 700 seats and 25 councils overall, while the Liberal Democrats have gained nearly 450 seats.

National politics seems to have been a deciding factor for voters, with Labour also losing almost more than 70 so far…

The Green Party has done well, adding more than 100 seats so far, but UKIP has lost ground, with 80 fewer councillors at this stage than in 2015. Meanwhile, the number of independent councillors is up by more than 300…

While local elections give voters the chance to choose the decision-makers who affect their communities, the national issue loomed large on the doorstep…

Theresa May, appearing at the Welsh Conservative conference, said voters had sent the "simple message" that her party and Labour had to "get on" with delivering Brexit.

Speaking in Greater Manchester, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he "wanted to do better" and conceded voters who disagreed with its backing for Brexit had deserted the party.

But Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, in Chelmsford Essex, where his party took control of the council, said it had been a "brilliant" result and that "every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for stopping Brexit".

Polling expert Prof Sir John Curtice said the days of the Conservatives and Labour dominating the electoral landscape, as happened in the 2017 election, when they won 80% of the vote between them, "may be over"…

Prof Curtice said there was a North/South divide emerging in the losses too, with the Conservatives shedding more seats in the South - especially in areas that voted Remain - and Labour losing more in the North.

Green Party co-leader Sian Berry said she was confident her party would end the day with a "record number of councillors on a record number of councils".

She told BBC Breakfast the Greens were not simply benefiting from a protest vote over Brexit and their gains reflected "huge new concerns" about climate change as well as the strength of their local campaigning on a range of issues.

UKIP is down by more than 60 seats on its 2015 performance…

Of the 248 elections in England, 168 have been district councils which are in charge of setting and collecting council tax, bin collections, local planning and council housing.

There were also elections taking place for 47 unitary authorities and 33 metropolitan boroughs which look after education, public transport, policing and fire services, as well as all the services of district councils.

In Northern Ireland, councils are responsible for services including local planning and licensing, waste collection and enforcing safety regulations to do with food, workplaces and the environment.

Labels: elections, parties, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Complicated politics in the UK

Support for Scottish independence has risen to its highest point in the past four years, largely driven by voters who want to remain in the European Union…

As the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) meets for its spring conference, the YouGov poll showed support for secession from the United Kingdom had risen to 49 percent from 45 percent at the last YouGov poll carried out for The Times in June 2018.

Scots rejected independence by 45-55 percent in a 2014 referendum. Then the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum, but among its four nations Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay, feeding political tension.

Britain is mired in political chaos and it is still unclear when or even if it will leave the EU.

YouGov also found that 53 percent of Scots thought there should not be another referendum on independence within the next five years…

The poll also showed voters moving away from both the Conservatives and the Labour Party north of the English border…

Labels: cleavages, nation, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Failed in place?

The whole world of Britain’s Parliament — its effete codes of conduct, its arcane and stilted language, its reunions of Oxbridge school chums — seemed impossibly remote from the real, unfolding national crisis of Brexit, the process of extricating the country from the European Union…

Over the past weeks, as factions within the British government have grappled for control over the country’s exit from the bloc, the mood among voters has become dark.

Those Britons who wished to remain are reminded, daily, that a risky and momentous national change is being initiated against their will and judgment. More striking is the deep cynicism among those who voted to leave, the group that Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to satisfy. They are now equally bitter and disillusioned, as the government’s paralysis has called into question whether Britain will ever leave.

Parliament’s rejection of Mrs. May’s withdrawal plan… — for the third time — means the turbulence will continue.

In interviews, many Britons expressed despair over the inability of the political system to produce a compromise. No one feels that the government has represented their interests. No one is satisfied. No one is hopeful.

It has amounted to a hollowing out of confidence in democracy itself…

“There’s a fin-de-siècle sense that modern British politics has run out of road,” said Mr. Davies, author of “Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason.” “Maybe the best thing to come out of this is the recognition that the political elites — people just want them to get off the stage. I don’t know who they want to replace them. But there’s a sense that a reboot would be something people would be in favor of.”…

The referendum question has divided Britain into warring tribes, unable to settle on any shared vision of the future. An ancient, robust democracy is groaning under the weight of conflicting demands — on the executive, to carry out the will of the people; and on the members of Parliament, to follow their conscience and to act in what they believe to be the people’s interest…

“I think people have totally lost confidence in democracy, in British democracy and the way it’s run,” said Tommy Turner, 32, a firefighter. He was perched on a stool at the Hare & Hounds, a working-class pub in Surrey, where nearly everyone voted to leave the European Union. Among his friends, he said, he sensed a profound sense of betrayal that Britain was not exiting on March 29, as promised.

“You’ve got egotistical people in politics, and they want to follow their own agenda,” he said. “They don’t want to follow what the people have voted for.”…

Polling has borne out his worry. Britons’ assessment of their leaders is scathing, with 81 percent saying that Britain has handled Brexit badly, and 7 percent saying it has handled it well, according to data released recently by NatCen Social Research, an independent agency…

Particularly drastic, researchers said, is the souring of Leave voters in the past six months, as Mrs. May concluded her negotiations on the withdrawal agreement and shared the terms of departure with the country. Expectations that Brexit would have concrete effects — by lifting the economy or slowing immigration — have diminished sharply, the data show…

[A]t The Highbury Barn, a pub in North London that offers haddock from the fishmonger across the street and provides pans of water for visiting dogs. In this neighborhood, Islington North, in the constituency of the opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the number of signatories on a petition asking the government to revoke Article 50, the part of the European Union treaty that lays out the terms of Britain’s exit, reached one-quarter of the population.

But people here took an equally dismal view of the government’s performance…

Aidan Hughes, 58, who works in finance, was waiting for a cab in the back of the bar.

“What we’re seeing is that the process the government’s involved in has been effectively hijacked by an even smaller segment of the ruling government, the right-wing element of the party,” he said. He blamed the first-past-the-post voting system, which tends to increase polarization between two large parties and exaggerate geographical divides, setting up stark conflict between sections of society.

He said it was time for Britain to move toward a system of proportional representation, common to democracies that evolved later than Britain’s, which allows smaller parties to enter Parliament more easily.

“We would then have people with different views coming together to compromise, to find a way forward,” he said. “Whereas whoever wins an election now can currently push their views, irrespective of support.”…

In a landscape of pervasive gloom, Mr. Hughes, the finance worker, did see one reason for hope: That Britons, young and old, were passionately engaged, as never before, in the inner workings of their own government. Even if it was because they were so angry.

“This is starting to drag people into an interest in what’s actually happening,” he said. “Clearly it’s a total mess and it’s been handled appallingly by the government. Be that as it may, at least it’s gotten people animated in talking about these topics.”

Labels: Brexit, politics, regime, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Parliament without a government?

Britain’s Parliament grabbed control Monday of the government’s efforts to leave the European Union, challenging the country’s political traditions and inflicting on Prime Minister Theresa May a rebuke not suffered by any recent predecessor.

By stepping into the process known as Brexit and trying to define an alternative path, lawmakers could create a constitutional showdown in Britain, where the government normally controls the agenda in Parliament, especially on its most pressing issues.

Parliament passed an amendment giving itself the power to vote on alternatives to the government’s Brexit plan…

Mrs. May’s grip on power is ebbing, with members of her cabinet openly discussing contradictory Brexit policies, rumors swirling of a plot to replace her and several of her Conservative Party lawmakers calling on her to name a date for her departure from power…

Parliament’s attempt to take control was led by Oliver Letwin, a veteran Conservative lawmaker, and is driven largely by fear of leaving without an agreement, a rupture that could leave ports jammed and cause huge economic dislocation…

Under the amendment… which passed by a vote of 329 to 302, Parliament will hold a series of votes on Wednesday on alternatives to Mrs. May’s plan.

These could include a so-called “soft Brexit” that would keep Britain tied into European economic structures; a second referendum, revoking Brexit completely; or leaving without any deal…

Demonstrably, discipline has almost completely broken down inside the government and there is a feeling among many at Westminster that something has to give soon…

Labels: government, parliament, rule of law, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:13 AM 0 comments

What now?

In a night of high drama in the Commons, MPs surprised the government and voted by 312 to 308 to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances.

The vote is not binding - under current law the UK could still leave without a deal on 29 March.

On Thursday, MPs will vote on whether to ask the EU for permission to delay the date for departure.

There could be a short extension - or a much longer one - depending on whether MPs backed the prime minister's existing withdrawal deal that has been agreed with the EU by 20 March, the government says.

That means Theresa May could make a third attempt to get her deal through Parliament in the next few days…

Looking down from the press gallery, some ministers could be seen wrestling with their conscience: hating the idea of a no-deal Brexit, hating the idea of defying the government - and not quite clear if they'd lose their jobs if they did.

Thirteen ministers, including four in the cabinet, could not bring themselves to back the government.

Afterwards, some ministers were seen literally running away, such is the anger tonight has provoked.

So, "what's going to happen next?" seemed like a reasonable question to a minister.

"I've no idea. Find me someone who has and I'll find you a liar," came the reply…

Labels: Brexit, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:30 PM 0 comments

Another Brexit loss

Theresa May's EU withdrawal deal has been rejected by MPs by an overwhelming majority for a second time, with just 17 days to go to Brexit.

MPs voted down the prime minister's deal by 149 - a smaller margin than when they rejected it in January.

Mrs May said MPs will now get a vote on whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal and, if that fails, on whether Brexit should be delayed.

She said Tory MPs will get a free vote on a no-deal Brexit.

That means they can vote with their conscience rather than following the orders of party managers - an unusual move for a vote on a major policy, with Labour saying it showed she had "given up any pretence of leading the country"…

Setting out the next steps, she said that if the Commons declines to approve a no-deal Brexit in a vote on Wednesday, a vote on extending Article 50, the legal mechanism taking the UK out of the EU on 29 March, will take place on Thursday…

Mrs May said leaving without a deal remained the UK's default position but Downing Street said she will tell MPs whether she will vote for no-deal when she opens Wednesday's Commons debate on it.

The prime minister did not discuss resigning after her latest defeat because a government led by her had recently won a confidence vote in the Commons, added the PM's spokesman…

Labels: Brexit, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:56 PM 0 comments

More dissent in Commons

Three Tory MPs have resigned from the party to join an independent group, set up by former Labour MPs…

The PM said she was "saddened", but her party would "always offer... decent, moderate and patriotic politics".

The three criticised the government's "disastrous handling" of Brexit and said it had undone "all the efforts to modernise" the Conservatives.

The pro-Remain trio will join the new Independent Group - made up of eight Labour MPs who resigned from their party over its handling of Brexit and anti-Semitism - saying it represented "the centre ground of British politics"…

The departure of the three MPs has reduced the government's working majority to nine MPs, and Ms Allen claimed there were "absolutely" other colleagues "keen" to join the group.

The Independent Group now has more MPs in Parliament than the Democratic Unionist Party and equals the number of Liberal Democrats…

The three MPs said they will support the government on areas such as the economy, security and improvements to public services, but they felt "honour bound to put our constituents' and country's interests first" over Brexit. They told Mrs May in their letter: "We voted for you as leader because we believed you were committed to a moderate, open-hearted Conservative Party.

"Sadly, the Conservative Party has increasingly abandoned these principles and values with a shift to the right of British politics."…

Labels: Brexit, legislature, political parties, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Another party splintering in the UK?

Seven lawmakers from Britain’s opposition Labour Party resigned on Monday to protest their leader’s approach toward the country’s withdrawal from the European Union and his handling of accusations of anti-Semitism.

The party, which is led by Jeremy Corbyn, has been divided by growing tensions for months, with some centrist lawmakers struggling to reconcile their positions with the leadership’s more leftist policies…

[Luciana] Berger said that the lawmakers would sit in Parliament as an independent grouping. “I cannot remain in a party that I have come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic,” she said.

[Chris] Leslie said that the Labour Party had been “hijacked by the machine politics of the hard left,” and criticized “Labour’s betrayal on Europe.”

Responding to the announcement by the members of Parliament, Mr. Corbyn said, “I am disappointed that these M.P.s have felt unable to continue to work together for the Labour policies that inspired millions at the last election and saw us increase our vote by the largest share since 1945.”

“Labour won people over on a program for the many, not the few,” he added. “The Conservative Government is bungling Brexit,” he said, referring to Britain’s exit from the European Union, “while Labour has set out a unifying and credible alternative plan.” …

[T]he resignation of the seven Labour lawmakers on Monday reflects the strains that Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union has placed on a political system dominated by two main parties, each plagued by schisms…

Now, with the British government’s deal on the terms of its departure in jeopardy, and the threat of an economically damaging exit rising, many members of the Labour Party have expressed support for a second referendum on the issue…

Labels: leadership, legislature, political parties, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Queen's politics

Over the last few years, as Britain has divided into warring tribes over its exit from the European Union, Queen Elizabeth II has retained a sphinxlike neutrality, imperturbably getting on with the business of conveying knighthoods and hosting garden parties.

QEII

But this week even the queen was drawn into Britain’s constitutional turmoil, after a prominent lawmaker suggested she employ a royal prerogative that has not been used for centuries: the right to tactically adjourn, or “prorogue,” a rebellious Parliament.

The 92-year-old queen then made a veiled reference to Brexit in a speech on Thursday, delivering a plea for “respecting different points of view” and “coming together to seek out the common ground.” In line with her constitutional obligation to remain neutral on political matters, she revealed nothing about her views…

Commentators spent much of Friday morning deconstructing these words for signs that the queen was recommending a particular course of action, with many concluding that she was throwing her weight behind Mrs. May’s deal.

From the queen’s words it was hard to tell. But one thing was clear: She is worried enough to get involved…

Some complained that she had overstepped her constitutional powers. “I don’t think Her Majesty should be wading in,” wrote Sean O’Grady, an editor of The Independent, who supports a second referendum…

Journalists… braced for another round of frantic interpretation. “If anyone else came out with these sort of cliché-ridden, impossible-to-disagree-with, back-of-a-greetings card platitude, they would be ignored,” complained Adam Bienkov of Business Insider on Twitter. “But this is Queen talking in Britain in 2019…

The queen was criticized in 2014 for telling a well-wisher on the eve of a referendum on Scottish independence that “I hope people will think very carefully about the future.” The remark was seen as aiding the unionist side…

She is also being urged, by a few, to be more involved. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a hard-line Brexiteer sometimes referred to as “the honorable member for the 18th century,” suggested on Wednesday that the queen might have a role in resolving the country’s constitutional dilemma…

Stephen Laws… a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, a research organization in London… described the prospect of the queen’s involvement as “unthinkably awful.”

“There is always the likelihood that people will question whatever she does,” he said. “It is the responsibility of politicians to arrange their affairs so that there is never a need to involve herself in a controversy.”

Labels: monarchy, political culture, politics, rule of law, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Measuring standard of living

Chinese authorities will press ahead with a "toilet revolution" in rural areas to provide standard and regulated facilities and improve rural residents' living quality, according to the latest policy document.

 

Toilets for rural households in the country's eastern regions and mid-western city outskirts should "basically" go through pollution-free renovations by 2020, with toilet waste to be "effectively" treated or utilized by 2022, according to guidelines released by the office of the central agricultural work leading group, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and six other departments.

By 2020, around 85 percent of rural households in mid-western areas where conditions permit should have access to sanitary toilets.

The coverage of sanitary toilets in remote and underdeveloped regions should be increased "gradually" by 2020 and "markedly" by 2022, according to the guidelines.

China launched the "toilet revolution" in 2015 to increase the number and sanitation of toilets at tourist sites. The campaign expanded to improve public toilets in cities and build better private toilets in rural areas.

Labels: China, standard of living, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Cartoon pig as soft power

She's unlikely to feature on many lists of the all-time top British cultural icons.

But Peppa Pig - the UK-made children's cartoon character - is right up there with the best of them, at least in China.

With the series racking up 18 billion online views since its launch here seven years ago, the story of Peppa and her unfeasibly English middle class family is, arguably, doing more for Brand Britain than the Beatles, Manchester United and any of the culinary delights - for which the UK is rightly so renowned - put together…

It is then no surprise that, when a Peppa-shaped opportunity came knocking, the British powers that be seized the moment.

After watching an episode in which the precocious piglet and her friends visit the Queen in Buckingham Palace - and encourage her to join them jumping in muddy puddles - two Chinese twins posted a video message online, addressed to none other than Her Royal Majesty.

They too, like Peppa, wanted to visit her in her palace, they said.

And it worked.

Well, sort of.

The British ambassador to China, Dame Barbara Woodward, posted her own video message in reply.

Ambassador Woodward with Me Ni and Me Ai

"Hello Mi Ni and Mi Ai," she said. "I'm the British ambassador, so I'm the Queen's representative in China.

"I'd like you to come and visit me in my house in Beijing," she went on, "and we can perhaps have tea and scones in a British style."

The post has been viewed more than nine million times in China - a multiple of 10 times more views than anything else Dame Barbara has posted in her entire four years as ambassador.

And so it was that two slightly bewildered five-year-olds found their way to her residence and munched on scones and chocolate cake, and sat colouring in pictures of Peppa Pig, in front of the assembled media.

The whole experience may not have been quite the same as the real deal, but they have also been promised a trip to the UK where they will, at least, get to see Buckingham Palace.

And the British embassy has launched a competition along with Youku - the online channel with the Chinese rights to Peppa Pig - the young winners of which will also join the twins for the trip…

A new Peppa Pig movie - made especially for the Chinese market - is due to be launched this coming Chinese New Year.

It is a collaboration between China's Alibaba Pictures and Canada's Entertainment One; although still made in the UK, Peppa Pig is now owned by the Canadian company.

The viral trailer for the film - which artfully grafts the story of Peppa onto seasonal themes of Chinese family and belonging - has received more than 300 million hits to date…

Labels: China, soft power, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:11 AM 0 comments

UK: Speaker of the House

In the wretched purgatory that was Westminster last week, there was precisely one person who seemed to be having fun.

From the silk-canopied speaker’s chair of the House of Commons, John Bercow looked out over Britain’s squabbling Parliament and brayed, “Order! Order!” in that undrownoutable voice, something like an air-raid siren with postnasal drip…

The outside world rarely takes much notice of the speaker of the House of Commons, a nonpartisan and typically low-profile figure who presides over parliamentary debates. But Britain’s last-minute paralysis over exiting the European Union, or Brexit, has made Mr. Bercow into a kind of celebrity.

With less than 10 weeks left before the country is set to leave the bloc, he has broken precedent by wresting some control over the Brexit decision-making from Prime Minister Theresa May…

The speaker heading toward Commons

It is an extraordinary moment for Mr. Bercow, the 56-year-old son of a cabdriver from North London. An outsider sometimes mocked for his short stature (he is 5 foot 6½), he propelled himself through the Oxbridge-educated upper reaches of British society by sheer determination and is viewed, variously, as a sharp-elbowed bully and a champion of the rights of Parliament…

Even in the hyper-loquacious environment of British politics, Mr. Bercow stands out for his love of ornate language and withering insult.

“He could never say, ‘It’s great to see you’ ”; instead he would say, ‘It gives me inestimable pleasure to meet you for the finest condiments created by Mrs. Twinings,’ ” a colleague told Mr. Friedman, his biographer…

Mr. Bercow has made a career out of annoying his conservative colleagues. Some are still seething over his decision not to wear the traditional speaker’s regalia, including wig and knee-breeches, which he said created “a barrier between Parliament and the public.” …

But nothing has approached the fury that followed his decision to allow lawmakers to amend a business motion — effectively curbing the government’s powers….

Crispin Blunt, a lawmaker from the conservative Tory party, protested that Mr. Bercow could no longer claim to be a neutral arbiter on the issue of Brexit and should step down…

Ian Dunt, a political commentator who opposes Brexit, said the government has sidelined Parliament throughout the process, claiming that the referendum had provided the executive with a more direct form of sovereignty…

He compared this moment to 1642, when King Charles strode into the House of Commons and demanded that five lawmakers be arrested for treason. The speaker at the time, William Lenthall, refused his orders, telling the king in a famous speech that he acted solely on behalf of the House of Commons…

His precociousness and small stature did not ingratiate him to schoolyard bullies. Mr. Friedman said they threw him into a pond, laughing and saying, “Bercow can be in there with the other amphibians.” In university, “we’d quote Monty Python and he’d quote” the 19th-century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Andrew Crosbie, a fellow Tory activist, told Mr. Friedman.

He found his tribe in politics, a profession where his verbosity was an asset…

The events of the last week have won him praise from unusual quarters. The Times of London, calling him “hardly a sympathetic individual,” wrote approvingly of his actions, saying the government’s treatment of Parliament “has appeared drawn from the 17th century, frequently invoking the will of the people, much as the early Stuarts used to assert the divine right of kings.”…

Labels: parliament, parties, political culture, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Who are those "old boys?"

Britain’s rupture with the European Union is proving to be another act of moral dereliction by the country’s rulers. The Brexiteers, pursuing a fantasy of imperial-era strength and self-sufficiency, have repeatedly revealed their hubris, mulishness and ineptitude over the past two years. Though originally a “Remainer,” Prime Minister Theresa May has matched their arrogant obduracy, imposing a patently unworkable timetable of two years on Brexit and laying down red lines that undermined negotiations with Brussels and doomed her deal to resoundingly bipartisan rejection this week in Parliament.

Such a pattern of egotistic and destructive behavior by the British elite flabbergasts many people today. But it was already manifest seven decades ago during Britain’s rash exit from India…

Louis Mountbatten [the last British governor general of India]… was a representative member of a small group of upper- and middle-class British men from which the imperial masters of Asia and Africa were recruited. Abysmally equipped for their immense responsibilities, they were nevertheless allowed by Britain’s brute imperial power to blunder through the world…

Britain’s rupture with the European Union is proving to be another act of moral dereliction by the country’s rulers. The Brexiteers, pursuing a fantasy of imperial-era strength and self-sufficiency, have repeatedly revealed their hubris, mulishness and ineptitude over the past two years. Though originally a “Remainer,” Prime Minister Theresa May has matched their arrogant obduracy, imposing a patently unworkable timetable of two years on Brexit and laying down red lines that undermined negotiations with Brussels and doomed her deal to resoundingly bipartisan rejection this week in Parliament.

Such a pattern of egotistic and destructive behavior by the British elite flabbergasts many people today. But it was already manifest seven decades ago during Britain’s rash exit from India…

Even a columnist for The Economist, an organ of the British elite, now professes dismay over “Oxford chums” who coast through life on “bluff rather than expertise.” “Britain,” the magazine belatedly lamented last month, “is governed by a self-involved clique that rewards group membership above competence and self-confidence above expertise.” In Brexit, the British “chumocracy,” the column declared, “has finally met its Waterloo.”…

Ireland, England’s first colony, have proved to be the biggest stumbling block for the English Brexiteers chasing imperial virility. Moreover, Britain itself faces the prospect of partition if Brexit, a primarily English demand, is achieved and Scottish nationalists renew their call for independence…

Humiliations in neo-imperialist ventures abroad, followed by the rolling calamity of Brexit at home, have cruelly exposed the bluff of what Hannah Arendt called the “quixotic fools of imperialism.” As partition comes home, threatening bloodshed in Ireland and secession in Scotland, and an unimaginable chaos of no-deal Brexit looms, ordinary British people stand to suffer from the untreatable exit wounds once inflicted by Britain’s bumbling chumocrats on millions of Asians and Africans. More ugly historical ironies may yet waylay Britain on its treacherous road to Brexit. But it is safe to say that a long-cossetted British ruling class has finally come to the end of itself as it was.

Labels: leadership, political culture, political socialization, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:21 AM 0 comments

The Jargon of British politics

Let's start with the article's title. What's a "cross-party amendment"?

In the US, you would probably hear that kind of thing referred to as "bipartisan." (But that language might be misleading if you have more than two active parties in the legislature as the British do.)

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"Labour is to support a backbench amendment tabled by Yvette Cooper that could severely restrict the government’s taxation powers unless a no-deal Brexit is taken off the table.

"The Labour frontbench is likely to whip its MPs to back the cross-party amendment, significantly increasing its chances of success in the Commons. Around a dozen Tory MPs have also signalled their intention to back the amendment…"

Ms Cooper's amendment has been "tabled." In American Robert's Rules of Orders, if you table something, it is set aside "on the table," and won't be considered unless the legislature votes to take it up (off the table). In the UK, a tabled amendment is one that has been introduced needs to be voted up or down.

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And, what's the Labour "frontbench?" It's the party leaders who sit on the front bench in the House of Commons. The government "frontbench" sits on the opposite side alongside the Prime Minister (or her surrogate). The people occupying those front bench seats are often referred to as "front benchers". And the rest of the party members sit on the back benches and are referred to as "back benchers." The front benchers are the powerful people in Commons.

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And what happens if Labour's frontbench whips its MPs to back the cross-party amendment?

Be assured there will be no physical violence. After all Commons is designed to discourage violence. The white lines between the government and opposition benches, which MPs are not supposed to cross, are far apart enough to discourage sword fighting.

Every day, the leadership of the parties distributes an agenda for

An agenda with two three-line whips

events in Commons. The agenda includes expected votes and instructions on how a good party member will vote.

Some votes are "free votes" meaning that party members can vote as they wish (or as they think their constituency wishes). Some votes on the agenda will be underlined by a single line. That's a single line whip. The party has taken a position, but it's not a really big deal if a member wishes to vote against the party.

A two-line whip is an instruction to attend Commons for the vote and to follow party policy unless given permission to abstain or vote contrary to the party's position.

If the vote on the agenda is underlined three times, it's a "three-line whip" and a big deal. An MP is expected to attend and to vote to support party policy. A violation of three-party whip is likely to lead to serious consequences. (Remember that nearly a third of the MPs hold party or legislative jobs handed out by party leaders.)

Labels: legislature, parties, political culture, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Get ready, park, go?

The government is to use up to 150 lorries in a major test of its plans to cope with border disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

A live test on Monday will examine the proposal to use Manston airfield near Ramsgate as a mass “HGV holding facility” to alleviate congestion on the roads leading to Channel ports, the Department for Transport has confirmed…

A DfT [Department for Transportation] spokeswoman said: “We do not want or expect a no-deal scenario and continue to work hard to deliver a deal with the EU. However, it is the duty of a responsible government to continue to prepare for all eventualities and contingencies, including a possible no deal…

Congestion at the Channel ports caused by the reintroduction of customs checks on goods has been one of the most commonly cited potential negative impacts of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU at the end of March.

Meanwhile, the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, said a second EU referendum would “trigger a very populist reaction” and would further divide the UK…

The comments echoed those of his cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt, after the foreign secretary said this week the consequences for democracy of another referendum would be “devastating”.

Labels: Brexit, bureaucracy, EU, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Seize the power

The Mace

As the lawmaker approached the large ornamental club in the middle of Britain’s House of Commons on Monday night, his fellows chattered in the benches. When he hoisted it up, a clamor erupted: “Disgrace,” “Expel him,” “No!”

But when he turned and tried to walk out with the ceremonial mace, John Bercow, the speaker of the House, said, “Order. Put it back. No, no.”

At the exit, a white-haired woman emerged to grab the scepter from the offending member of Parliament, Lloyd Russell-Moyle. He gave it up without a fight, and she ended the brief rebellion in Parliament, an abortive heist that reflected the current chaos in Britain’s government, where confusion — about policy, authority and a mace — has in recent days reigned.

The mace, decorated with roses, thistles and pearls, represents the royal authority of the crown, from which the Houses of Parliament derive their own authority…

Has this happened before?

On several occasions, Britons angry with their government have brandished the mace and dismayed their peers…

In each instance, [Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics] said, grabbing the mace was “considered grave disorder,” because “anybody who picks up or touches the mace is kind of rebelling against the underlying function of the House of Commons.”…

Labels: political culture, politics, protest, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

First battle

Prime Minister Theresa May has won a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party by 200 to 117.

Mrs May is now immune from a leadership challenge for a year…

Mrs May won the confidence vote with a majority of 83, with 63% of Conservative MPs backing her and 37% voting against her…

The prime minister still faces a battle to get the Brexit deal she agreed with the EU through the UK Parliament, with all opposition parties and, clearly, dozens of her own MPs against it…

But in a last-minute pitch to her MPs before the vote she promised to stand down as leader before the next scheduled election in 2022…

Labels: leadership, rule of law, UK, vote of confidence

posted by Ken Wedding @ 3:46 PM 0 comments

No Confidence Vote

Under the party’s rules Mrs. May needs to win 158 votes from among the 315 Conservative members of Parliament to remain as party leader and therefore prime minister. If she does so, then party members cannot mount another challenge to her leadership for a year. If she lost the vote, then the party would choose another leader over the coming weeks, and Mrs. May would not be eligible to compete for the position…

[Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee of Conservative lawmakers] told the BBC that he had informed Mrs. May about the 48 letters on Tuesday evening by phone. She will have the opportunity to address Conservative Party members before they cast their ballots, he said, adding that Mrs. May had pressed to hold the vote quickly because of the imminence of Thursday’s European Union summit meeting.

If she loses the confidence vote, Mrs. May could in theory remain as prime minister until a successor as Conservative Party leader were selected…

Significantly, Wednesday’s vote will be conducted by secret ballot, which suggests that protestations of loyalty, even from cabinet ministers who took to Twitter to state their support, cannot be taken at face value…

If a majority of Conservative lawmakers were to force her out, then in a round of ballots, they would narrow the candidates to succeed her down to two. The winner would then be chosen from those two contenders by the party’s members.

Labels: leadership, no confidence vote, rule of law, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:14 AM 0 comments