Parliament is Making the UK a Global Laughing Stock

This current Parliament assembled is making the UK a laughing stock on the global stage, and diminishing its effect on world affairs – it has to stop.

On Saturday 20th October, Parliament met in a historic session, the first time since 1982 that it had done so on a Saturday. On that day 37 years previous, it was to discuss the start of the Falkland’s War.

What it achieved yesterday, unlike its predecessors in 1982, was to diminish the United Kingdom on the world stage, making it look amateur, out of touch with its own people, and in a state of political paralysis.

Leaders around the world are watching the events unfolding. They are laughing. Dictators are taking notes on how to give the impression of democracy, but to then frustrate it legitimately.

In the last three years in British Politics, there has been a lot of talk about “in the national interest”, and the classic “maintaining the Union”.

There is also another phrase that has been used by all sides, which is “the will of the people”.

The key facts in all this political tomfoolery, is that based on the 2016 referendum result, there are more leave constituencies than remain constituencies. However, there are more remain Members of Parliament than there are leave.

On that basis, taking political persuasions, party politics and the personally-held views of the Members out of the equation for just a moment, this current parliament assembled is not representative of the people who elected them.

The members have blocked a general election, the most democratic act in a democracy, not because of the concerns about a no-deal Brexit (Hillary Benn MP and Oliver Letwin MP saw to that), but because of their own self-interest.

Once Brexit is concluded one way or another, a piece of legislation that should be dealt with as one of the many domestic priorities the Government will have, will be the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.

The FTPA should be abolished, and the ability to call a General Election not held to ransom by any party, simply because it suits them or doesn’t suit them.

So, as I said at the start, this Parliament assembled is a laughing stock on the world stage. The members have brought it on themselves and are all now acting dictatorially by blocking a general election. What the world saw yesterday was an effective Coup d’etat in Westminster.