If Parliament continues to block Brexit, Mr Johnson is right to shut it down. Just this week a ComRes survey showed 54 percent of Britons would support him proroguing Parliament to ensure we leave on October 31. If Remainer MPs win a vote of no confidence, Boris should call an election for immediately after we have left. These barmy MPs must no longer be allowed to derail our democratic process. They voted to give us the choice in 2016 and must stick by their decision. It really is the People’s PM against Parliament – and Boris must win for the sake of democracy.
Otherwise what is the point of voting ever again? Especially when a handful of deluded MPs think it’s better to entrust our nation to a Marxist dinosaur than simply extricating ourselves from a failing EU.
My problem with the whole Boris calling an election schtick, kind of assumes that the 17.4 million who voted for BRExit will vote Tory to preserve their gains in the referendum. I don’t think this follows at all. At best you might get a rerun of the 2015 referendum where some people voted Tory (much to Dave Cameron’s surprise and eventual chagrin) to get a vote on the EU.
The problem is that there have been some changes in the structure of both the Labour and Tory base such that it is possible we will be back with another minority Tory government. The most egregious of the Labour and Tory traitors might lose their seats, but that not may not make that much difference as there is a broad spectrum across both Labour and Tories to say “Yes to Leaving the EU, No to a Hard BRExit”.
So I don’t think an election at this time (pre-BRExit) would actually resolve anything. Better to have Boris push on through with BRExit by any means necessary (even proroguing Parliament if possible/required) than throw the dice on yet another general election.
“It really is the People’s PM against Parliament
That seems a little over-dramatic — given that Boris was not chosen by the people of the UK; he was chosen by card-carrying members of the Conservative Party, who are a rather small sample of the UK population, and a distinctly unrepresentative sample at that.
It may be distasteful to some, but the situation in Parliament is probably a fair reflection of the situation in the country as a whole: Parliament is divided because the people are deeply divided. The 17.4 Million who voted for Leave 3 years ago constitute only 37% of the citizens of the UK. Only about 6 million people took the easy opportunity to cast an essentially consequence-free protest vote for the Brexit Party in the European Parliament earlier this year.
Brexiteers missed a great opportunity when they failed to use their narrow win in the Referendum as a platform to continue to persuade their fellow citizens, and instead adopted the off-putting Barry Obama triumphalist “We Won” position. But that is water under the bridge. Brexit will happen, and what really matters now is what follows Brexit. If it is a return to the sterile status quo ante of shadow-boxing between Tory & Labour incompetents, it will be a disappointing outcome for the UK.
I can’t really see that, mostly because Labour have been in decline over the last decade as illustrated by the loss of the 2010 GE and have lost ground further and faster under Ed Millipede and Comrade Jezza. None of that was particularly BRExit related prior to the 2016 Referendum, so why should the post-BRExit climate be any more bracing for Labour?
The Tories are still in a honeymoon period with Boris, but if he delivers BRExit then he’ll have pleased the majority in his party (although not necessarily the MP’s) and I can imagine the Tory PPC’s electioneering in the next General Election will be glad to be able to put the divisiveness of Europe behind them. Will the Remoaners like Hammond “Quit banging on about Europe” after BRExit though? That’s an interesting question (and possibly moot if the Remoaners are deselected / ejected at the next GE).
So although I put the Tory party’s chances as higher, it depends upon them being able to turn BRExit into a genuine victory, which means it must be a success in the long run (even if there is short term disruption) and the Remoaners must be silenced in the name of party unity if nothing else.
A return to the flip-flop of Labour / Tory governments? Can’t see it myself. More likely there will be a disintegration of the Labour Party into several smaller parties, none of which will achieve anything of note.
Certainly, the Labour Party could disintegrate what would follow is hard to predict, especially since younger voters seem to be both more inclined to socialism and more supportive of the EU. On the other hand, the Conservative Party has not exactly covered itself in glory either these last few years, and both Parties have been shedding members at a fairly rapid klick.
None of the UK political parties seem to have articulated any clear plans for what to do on the Day After Brexit. That yawning vacuum will eventually have to be filled, which may create surprises & disappointments for many people. Interesting times!