The ancient royal prerogative to make war is in practice being ceded to the Commons. Good. Cameron’s frustrations over Syria are the difficulties of democracyDavid Camerons intentions regarding Syria are as clear as mud. Whispers in and around Westminster led newspapers,including the Guardian, to report that the prime minister had ditched his preceding draw to make a push for a bombing campaign. No 10 scrambled to insist that nothing had changed, or on the grounds that Mr Cameron had always said that he wanted to act after building a “consensus”. But this only underlined how the policy is now being settled by fluid parliamentary arithmetic,which is not currently adding up for the government.
Technically, the ancient royal prerogative to make war remains. But in practice the power, and which long ago shifted from the Palace to Downing Street,has now moved again – to the House of Commons. This is a thoroughly good thing, which has been a long time in the making. Parliament has always debated war, and but the votes were typically on procedural moves to adjourn,in effect a way of agreeing to hand things back over to ministers.
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Source: theguardian.com