Wednesday 3 June 2020

Abolish the Assembly? No Abolish Westminster.

I use Assembly rater than Senedd in this case because I don't know if those wanting abolishment have caught up ye.
Yesterday scenes , amid chaotic scenes in the House of Commons.
Others complained that a kilometre long queue to vote, which was compared to the lines at amusement parks like Alton Towers, was “how infections spread”. and has been criticsised by  even senior Conservative MPs have criticised the government’s decision to make MPs cast their votes in person
Inside the chamber some MPs struggled to remember the new protocol for casting their vote, as they were urged by the Speaker to hurry up.
Outside MPs snaked across a lawn as they queued to get inside the building to vote.
There were also complaints that social distancing rules had to be abandoned after a group of MPs got stuck in a ‘traffic jam’ at the bottom of an escalator.

Steve Baker, the former chair of the ERG group of eurosceptic Tory MPs, described the system as a “farce”.  
“I think we will be back to remote voting before we are all much older,” he predicted.
Conservative MP and former minister Nusrat Ghani described the set-up as “very British”. “We could vote electronically and crack on with business in Parliament or we can stand in queues.''
Michael Fabricant, a former Conservative whip, tweeted: "Anyone watching the voting live (on television) would see what an embarrassing shambles it is.''
Meanwhile the man responsible  for this "farce Jacob Rees-Mogg.MPs  has said who cannot attend Parliament for age or medical reasons will be able to question the government remotely but not vote, 
It came as MPs trooped through the Commons in socially-distanced lines to vote for an end to voting from home.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said another vote will be held on Wednesday to allow those who cannot attend in person to take part in debates.
But critics say not allowing that group to vote remotely is "discriminatory".
MPs have been using a "hybrid" system, with some in the Commons chamber, and some appearing via video link, since mid-April and some votes had been held remotely for the first time in Parliament's history.
Mr Rees-Mogg has been called the the honourable member for the 17th century, which is wrong  since as a Roman Catholic Mr Rees-Mogg would have been disbarred from voting.
However he does have contempt  for the democratic process which he hides under the guise of "tradition" , though apparently it includes slouching in parliament during debates.
The system of voting which already seems ridiculous  to outsiders  leaves MPs from those devolved areas  to weigh whether to attend or obey the laws of their own legistive bodies possibly disenfranchised  and leaves power with those MPs who either represent London constituencies (largely Labour)  or prefer to live in London rather than  the area they represent ( largely Tories) was ridiculous before and will go back to its  former voting system even after a 6 billion pound refurbishment  where the opportunity to modanise through electronic voting will be missed.
The Welsh and Scottish legistures has shown how a modern parliment can work and if Westminster can't reform then the case of the two to replace it fully in our Nations via independence becomes cleared.

1 comment:

norwaywalker said...

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad