This Blog has been constant in recording the collapse of orderly and effective government in the United Kingdom. Well, at least some order has now been restored. It is a basic principle of Parliamentary democracy, which we invented hence all that Mother of Parliaments stuff, that if a government is defeated on its primary legislation, such as the budget, it goes. May’s government has been defeated, not once but twice, on its Brexit deal. There has been nothing more primary than Brexit in peacetime since the Reformation. Yet in spite of these two major defeats and a number of minor ones, plus the collapse entirely of cabinet responsibility to the level of farce, where it is permissible for Ministers to propose to the House a course of action which that minster then votes against, the May government is still there.
Not only is it still there in office and no longer functioning as a coherent authority in the land, but it is returning again and again with the same thing, like a child demanding another sweet, until the parents finally cave in, no longer caring whether the rest of the journey will take place as a consequence in a car reeking of vomit. So this absurd government imagines Parliament will vote for the deal, in fear of crashing out or no Brexit. In other words a unity of opposites to make a desperate majority for something nobody actually wants. It is worth at this moment recording three things.
First, the Speaker is right to stop this rubbish. Enough is enough.
Second, the Brexiteers need to remember that their claim that the mandate for Brexit from 17.5 million people is being frustrated by a parliament unrepresentative of that majority of 52/48, is past its sell by date. The current parliament was elected AFTER the Brexit referendum and is bang up to date. Had the people wanted a crash Brexit they would have voted for UKIP, as all the other parties offered a sensible outcome that would be good for all. Instead UKIP was wiped out.
Third, unless something happens that is at present not planned, the trajectory of events is taking the country to a spectacular high noon when all May’s proposals are thrown out, including the extension, and the only options left from which MPs have solely and finally to choose, are a crash Brexit or revoking Article 50 for No Brexit. In that scenario, revoking Article 50 will win.