This thread exists to discuss British politics.
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Recent political stuff:
- The vote to see if Britain should adopt Alternative Voting has failed.
- Lib Dems lose lots of councils and councillors, whilst Labour make the majority of the gains in England.
- The Scottish National Party do really well in the elections.
A link to the BBC politics page containing relevant information.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 3rd 2023 at 11:15:30 AM
A procrastination in of itself
All parliamentary legislation is constitutional, what we lack is a codified constitution with a seperate set of rules for its governance.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
That's what I meant by constitutional legislation - that is, writing up a new constitution rather than the current mix of traditions, scattered Acts, and understandings about how things are done.
Edited by Ramidel on Apr 17th 2024 at 3:05:25 AM
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.
Disasturbator
Some day we'll write up our unwritten constitution,its like an overdue homework assignment..
New theme music also a box
he/him
Another Conservative MP gets the whip withdrawn.
Mark Menzies (Fylde, Lancashire) reportedly misused campaign funds for private medical expenses and requested £5,000 in the middle of the night to pay off "bad people", seemingly after a dating app liaison turned into a shakedown.
This is the same Mark Menzies who resigned a government role a decade ago after allegedly paying an escort for sex and asking them to source drugs for him.
Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 18th 2024 at 10:07:07 AM
No. The way Parliamentary Sovereignty works is that no parliament can bind a future one to act a certain way, and any given parliament can legislate however it pleases. So such a clause would not hold up to scrutiny.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
he/him
The government's attempt to prosecute a woman for a placard reminding juries of their rights gets thrown out of court.
I expect they'll take all the wrong lessons from this, as usual.
Figure of Hourai
Naturally, they'll want to codify in law that contempt of court is just having any vaguely related message anywhere near a courtroom.
Which would be extra stupid here, because as the article says, the exact phrase is on a sign in another bloody court in London.
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Parliament better fix that whole "rights of Englishmen" thing, it's just getting in the way of controlling the people.
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.
Foreign Troper
"No if's, no but's."
Rishi Sunak says he'll start the flights to Rwanda, no matter what
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Figure of Hourai
Is it just... a thing that every Tory PM is going to pick a random hill to die on?
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Except that the Tories never seem to die from it.
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.
Oh, bother.
The PM’s however do. There is a reason the UK has gone through so many Tory PM’s recently.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Foreign Troper
And it seems like it passed Parliament now
https://www.dw.com/en/rwanda-plan-uk-parliament-passes-migrant-deportation-bill/a-68888654
Figure of Hourai
Huh, SNP has broken off the power sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens. I wonder what they hope to get out of this?
I'm guessing they just want to get out ahead of the Greens voting to break it, since the SNP's been backtracking on all the policy areas they had agreed to work together on.
Edit: Oh boy, and it's escalated to a no-confidence vote. That's going to be a fun one to deal with.
Edited by RainehDaze on Apr 25th 2024 at 3:24:40 PM
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No guarantee that the Greens would even have voted to end it either, my two friends in the party wouldn't have voted to give up the powersharing over the broken environment pledges.
He's likely to lose the vote, which means the next candidate has to be left enough to appease the now-in-opposition Greens, or right enough to appease Alba's sole MSP, Ash Regan.
Edited by Marlfox24 on Apr 25th 2024 at 7:22:14 PM
"Too. Much. Clutter."
A procrastination in of itself
Have the SNP ruled out having a coalition/confidence & supply arrangement with unionist parties?
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Figure of Hourai
Every unionist party immediately went "let's go, then". And the Tories are calling the vote in the first place.
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I think they got turned around on the field and forgot which goal was theirs.
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.
Figure of Hourai
Very ambiguous pronoun usage there.
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so if the SNP lose the confidence vote does that mean Scottish Elections?
A procrastination in of itself
I believe not, they get a certain number of days to try and find a new First Minister, who just has to win more votes than any other candidates for First Minister.
Though if they can’t command a majority I’d expect a no-confidence motion against them pretty quickly, I think that the cycle could actually just repeat until the scheduled election in 2026.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
And even if Humza or a new leader can win a no confidence vote, moving forward all it will take on any motions at all can be foiled by a single rebel. The unionist MS Ps are never going to side with SNP motions so it'll take the full government vote, and at least one of Regan or Green votes to pass anything. The SNP have made this work in the past as a minority administration, but the party discipline simply isn't that strong anymore.
This parliament is basically gubbed until an election in other words.
"Too. Much. Clutter."
Figure of Hourai
"We need votes from numerous people who have every reason to want us out, one guy who's really awkward to get support from, or the people we just kicked out" isn't a great look on any front.
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A procrastination in of itself
I don’t think it’s just the party discipline that’s lower than it used to be, so is cooperation with other parties. Once upon a time the SNP could have tried to convince one of the Lib Dem’s, Greens or even Conservatives to abstain due to preferring a SNP minority over an election that might bring about a Labour government.
But now it’s been 17 years strait of SNP rule, the SNP rhetoric towards other parties has gotten so much worse and the SNP just burnt bridges with their one remaining ally (the Greens). Nobody fears that an early election would see the Conservatives win (all the polling has them doing worse) so even that can’t work to try and get Labour to abstain.
I think that for max chaos the SNP should promise to have the Scottish Parliment call an early election, but that it will be held on the same date as the U.K. Parliamentary election and thus a date can’t be given until the PM announces one for the British Parliment. We could even throw in a Senedd election if people are feeling extra spicy.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Hypothetically, Parliament could probably pass some kind of constitutional legislation and say "this bill may only be amended by an agreement of two-thirds of Parliament." Of course, that's never been done before and would probably lead to questions about its enforceability (as Parliament's only really controllable to the extent it allows itself to be).
I despise hypocrisy, unless of course it is my own.