Our country has arrived at a moment of profound political significance. For some time, the prime minister knew her deal would not pass in parliament, and all along she has mocked members of all parties with her blathering blandishments. A good deal. The only deal. A deal that is in the national interest.
Even behind closed doors, Theresa May’s government has excluded MPs – including successive Brexit secretaries – from the details of the negotiations.
And yesterday, a week after parliament held the government in contempt for hiding its legal advice on the deal, May again ignored MPs by blocking their ability to hold the vote.
I did not become an MP last year to get a better seat as a spectator as my country is sunk by a government that is as incompetent as it is callous, and that is why I picked up the mace.
Now, I am aware that for the vast majority of people a gangly man in moleskin trousers holding a 5ft golden rod might look a bit odd. But I work in a very odd place, which rests heavily on symbol and ritual.
The mace has for 500 years represented the authority invested in parliament by the crown. By abandoning the vote, May was again abandoning the principle that her authority rests on the consent of the MPs and their constituents.
I am not the first MP to pick up the mace. Other members have picked it up when the parliamentary system has not been working, or when it has been exploited by a cynical executive.
Yesterday May was trying to obscure in procedure her contempt of parliamentary democracy, so I wanted to do something simple to show what she was up to. By ruling without the authority of the parliament, the Tories made the ceremonial mace into a tawdry ornament, devoid of meaning and value.
While I appreciate that May feels personally humiliated, and wanted to escape what was expected to be a three-figure defeat, she has nowhere to escape to.
Instead of facing the music at home, she is back in Europe playing for time and making the same arguments to perhaps get non-binding assurances to a deal that is already signed.
Rather than bringing parliament a rebranded fait accompli, the prime minister should be working on building consensus on a deal here that she can then bring to Europe. This was what the EU did for the Brexit negotiations, and it has proved an effective strategy.
And if our prime minister is unable to unite MPs around a deal, she is simply unfit to hold office and should step aside for a Labour party that can.
This article was originally published in The Guardian on 11th December 2018
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