Suspending Parliament sounds terrible, right? The sort of thing that only happens in banana republics and dictatorships?
Errrr not really. Most years, Parliament is suspended for several days in the Autumn, while men in tights polish everything furiously before Her Majesty arrives to give the Queen’s Speech. Plus the place shuts for several weeks every autumn while MPs are attending Party Conferences too.
So why all the fuss? Because the people who want to stop Brexit need more Parliamentary time to get their plans to work, that’s why. So they are desperately trying to keep Parliament open when it’s normally shut.
That isn’t what they saying, of course. They’re pretending it’s all about democracy. But how is it democratic to stop the referendum decision from happening at all?
And they’re pretending they only want to stop a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, when what they really mean is no Brexit at all. Everyone would prefer to leave with a decent deal. But taking ‘no-deal’ off the table, even as a worst case backup plan, weakens our negotiating position with Brussels and makes getting a deal much less likely. So if they can pass laws to make a ‘no-deal’ exit impossible, they torpedo our chances of getting a deal as well. Hey presto, that means ‘no Brexit’ is the only choice left.
Whether you voted ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ like me, trying to stop a decision taken by the whole country at the ballot box doesn’t seem very democratic to most people. It’s got to be wrong. So is pretending you only want to stop ‘no-deal’ without being straight that what you’re really after is no Brexit at all. We should honour the referendum decision. It’s been more than three years since we all voted, and it’s time to move on. There’s more to life than Brexit, after all.