Through a procedural device permitted by Speaker Bercow against furious Brexiteer opposition, MPs voted this afternoon by 308 to 297 to cut the time allowed for the government to come back with a Plan B after losing the meaningful vote next week from 21 days to just 3. Robert Peston comments on it HERE. He said it's 'huge'.
Bercow reportedly selected Dominic Grieve's amendment to be voted on against the advice of the Clerk, according to Guido Fawkes HERE and several MPs told the speaker to his face he should be very careful he doesn't create a dangerous precedent. Whatever he did and what advice he received I am not sure. But I am quite certain Dominic Grieve would not have asked for something that wasn't constitutionally possible.
An article by Anne Perkins in The Guardian HERE strikes a cautionary note and thinks Bercow's decision "endangers the office of Speaker, and our democracy.
It's weird that those who before the referendum championed the sovereignty of parliament are so angry when that sovereignty is actually used. The PM has only herself to blame for the utter mess we're in. She has stumbled blindly forward with no plan only to reach an agreement no one likes and has then dragged her heels for weeks hoping to run out of time for anything else. This to force her template for the future onto an unwilling parliament. It is not the way massive constitutional changes should be made.
She shouldn't be surprised that MPs have stepped in to the vacuum where our leadership should be.
The divisions in the House are clear for all to see. Parliament is incapable of coming to any sort of consensus as there is no consensus in the country itself. Brexit is so far reaching it is in essence a complete resetting of our relationship with the EU and the rest of the world with profound implications for every person in this country. And when you reset something and start with a blank sheet it is hardly surprising that everyone has a different idea.
I think a People's Vote is the ONLY solution. The decision should be to remain or knowingly put ourselves through years of division, argument and strife in order to make the nation poorer, weaker and less influential by leaving the EU. In the latter circumstances, I think MPs who would have preferred to remain could at least say they tried and the people have only themselves to blame.
