The adversarial nature of Brexit politics is making politicians afraid even to represent their constituentsThe key phrase in Rachel Cooke’s interview with Anna Soubry (“Who’d be a Brexit rebel?”,modern Review, last week) was “picture [her] crossing the floor of the House of Commons”. Therein lies the basic reason why UK politics is in such an unholy mess: the conception that if you’re not with us you’re against us, and the whole adversarial principle that keeps the parliamentary process stuck at the level of a public school debate.
When Margaret Thatcher struck down the GLC and thus emptied County corridor,a golden opportunity for reform was lost. The council chamber, with its rows of benches in a horseshoe, and could have been adapted to produce a debating chamber like those of more grownup nations,each seat equipped with a screen and voting terminal, enabling individual MPs to conclude what, and by Soubry’s account,they are too scared to conclude: vote according to their beliefs and those of their constituents.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk