It is not clear whether the PM’s withdrawal agreement will be put to the Commons a third time next week. Soundings are still being taken to see if there is enough support to make it worthwhile.
(what makes no difference to that decision was the Speaker’s ruling earlier this week, that the Government can’t bring back the same questions that have already been defeated.
Yes he’s right about that, but the rules of the Commons are for our convenience, and when they become inconvenient we simply set them aside, and we do that quite frequently.
The Government’s problem isn’t the Speaker, it’s the fact that it can’t get a majority for its motion. If it can get enough MPs to vote for its motion, then it will have no difficulty getting enough to set aside the Speaker’s ruling)
I anticipate that Parliament will on Monday seize the legislative initiative and start putting different soft BREXIT options to the Commons. This has not happened in living memory so we are in completely uncharted territory.
Taken together with the agreement to prolong our EU membership, I am beginning to get the feeling that dream of BREXIT, this once-in-46 year-opportunity, is slipping through our fingers.
The PM told the nation from Downing Street that she was on the side of the people trying to deliver BREXIT and thwarted in that endeavour by Parliament.
It is true that all her efforts and negotiations have been undermined by the fact that she has no majority.
Voters share the PM’s frustration. They write to me all the time telling me so.
I wonder what they expected when they elected a hung parliament, and a Prime Minister with no majority to deliver the BREXIT that they had voted for?
That said, the PM has the power to put herself on the side of the people and thwart her Remainer Parliament.
Parliament has voted to extend our EU membership and it has voted against a no-deal Brexit. These however, are merely expressions of parliamentary opinion, they don’t change the facts.
And the fact remains that the law states that we leave on 29th March whatever.
Only the Government can introduce the statutory instrument to change the law and extend our EU membership. So, she has the power to leave the EU on 29th March –which she promised we would 108 times in Parliament- all she has to is withhold that statutory instrument this week.
Will she?
Is she really on the side of the people?
Actions speak louder than words.