Mhairi Black MP’s prophetic words came true today – a day that will go down as a day of shame and infamy in British political history
Have a listen to Mhairi Black MP below:
Above – hear her words From 2 mins 52 second.
You can listen to her full speech here.
“How close to fascism is Westminster?”
Have a listen to the final few minutes of the cross-examination at the Commons Liaison Committee – the select committee that scrutinises the Prime Minister once every six months.
The centuries-long political convention is the following:
- We have a ‘first past the post’ system where the country is divided into separate constituencies – and each of them has to ‘return a member to Parliament to represent them in the House of Commons’.
- At a general election (or in by-elections when vacancies arise) the individual candidate who receives the most votes in a constituency is the person that the returning officer (normally the Chief Executive of a local authority, or the Mayor of the Borough of a constituency) declares as the person elected to represent ***everyone*** who resides in the constituency.
- When all of the MPs after a general election gather, they have to decide which of them has the confidence of the majority of MPs to form a new government. The convention is that the leader of the political party (assuming they won their seat) that has the most MPs is the one who “The Queen sends for” and “invites them to form a new government” – the recommendation coming from the previous Prime Minister.
So the idea that Boris Johnson has a ‘personal mandate’ is constitutional nonsense.
There are a whole host of reasons why people might vote the way they do at general elections – including but not limited to:
- Because a voter has listened to all of the candidates speak and read their literature and decides which one is their preferred choice to represent them in Westminster
- Because a voter has listened to all of the leaders of each party (or just one) and decided that this is the person they want to become Prime Minister
- Because a voter has read all of the literature from all of the parties (or none!) and has decided that the values and policies of a political party are the ones they want to see in a new government.
- Because a voter despises the favourite candidate/party/leader and chooses the opposition candidate most likely to prevent the favourite from getting in – i.e. “tactical voting”
But there is nothing in our constitutional parliamentary system that enables an individual to vote for an individual to become Prime Minister in the manner that combined authorities with mayoralties can vote for the candidate they want to become Mayor of a Combined Authority – the question we were asked in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough just over a year ago.
We are in very dangerous times. Very, very dangerous times.
If you haven’t contacted your MP before, now might be the time to ask them how democracy is going to be strengthened in the UK. https://www.writetothem.com/
In my opinion we’re also beyond that territory – time for the so-called ‘silent majority to start getting involved in activism. I expect there will be street demonstrations and marches coming up in the very near future. If there is one happening near where you live, and are able to take part having taken the necessary Covid precautions given the rises we are seeing, and have never taken part in such a demonstration or march, now might be the time to consider becoming active.
We can’t leave it to ‘the usual suspects’ – because this involves us all.
Food for thought?
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