Saturday 31 August 2019

What is this democracy which Brexit protesters are demanding today?

Tens of thousands of protesters have been marching up and down today in Britain's towns and cities demanding that the government of Boris Johnson allows parliament to sit as normal and discuss Brexit - as it has been doing with no success for the last two years. In other words, cancel the suspension of parliament which has been approved by the Queen. The demonstrators I saw were in Brighton and this is what they were shouting: "What do we want? Democracy. What do we want? Democracy". Quite catchy I suppose, but for heaven's sake we're not in Beijing or Moscow or Pyongyang. This is good old Blighty where democracy is alive and well. I don't think the protesters had a clue what they were calling for, except that they have obviously swallowed whole the hyperbole spouted by the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, and others who have claimed that Boris Johnson's request to the Queen to suspend parliament from around September 9 to October 14 is a "constitutional outrage". It is, as someone astutely put it, ruthless political tactics. But it's not an affront to constitutional democracy. This method has been used before, albeit for not as long. But it's the tactics of a prime minister who promised the nation that he would take the UK out of the EU whatever happens on October 31, the last deadline imposed by the EU. So I'm assuming that every one of the protesters out on the streets today ALL voted Remain in the EU referendum. That's fine. But the democracy which they were calling for today was handed to them in 2016 when the majority voted to leave the EU. Since then, of course, parliament has done its best to thwart the wishes of the majority by rejecting the withdrawal agreement painstakingly negotiated by the Theresa May government. To hell with democracy, the MPs said, we want to stay in the EU. And that's why Theresa May was toppled and Boris Johnson took over. And that's why Boris has suspended parliament for five weeks. The House of Commons totally failed the country and its electors. Under its misguided and wayward leadership democracy faltered and collapsed. Did any of the protesters remember that as they marched along with their democracy banners?

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