The Return of Parliament
Iain Dale has very kindly publicised my last post, on the condition that I do a “blog a day”. Having missed SUnday, I have already broken my promise. May be I will manage two today.
Parliament returns today, after a mere 10 weeks off. Despite the cancelled election, the atmosphere, I expect, will be feverish, with announcments on Iraq, the pre-Budget Report and Government spending, as well as Prime Minister’s Questions, all in the next three days. It will be interesting to guague the mood of Labour MPs. I did the Westminster Hour with Labour MP Emily Thornberry last night, and while she was subdued, she played a loyal straight bat both on and off the air. Certainly more so than Harriet Harman, who could not bring herself to say the fiasco has not damaged Brown. Cue her imminent departure.
Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, was also on the programme. She raised the issue of fixed-term Parliaments. I declared my support for them in my last post, only to see my Leader say that he was emphatically against them on Andrew Marr’s show yesterday. One objection, raised by Prague Tory in my last post, is the possibility of having a minority Government stagger on for four years. In my view, that is not an objection, as Parliament could still be dissolved “mid-term” if the Government lost its majority. Then one would either re-set the clock or have another election on the set date.
I discussed the issue with a senior colleague at the Tory party conference. While still sceptical, he said he was coming round to the idea. He also pointed out two problems in Gordon Brown’s proposals which no one else seems to have noticed. Brown, you will recall, has spun stated that Parliament will be allowed to vote on any dissolution. This is a recipe for disaster, as a minority Government could be kept in power by the Opposition simply in order to make it suffer. It is also a trap for Oppositions, as they would be forced either to agree to a dissolution, thus being unable to accuse the Government of cutting and running, or vote against it, and thus be accused of being frightened of having an election. Thus, again, we see an apparently straightforward proposal by Brown suffused with political calculation and potential political disaster…
Praguetory said on October 8th, 2007 at 1:58 pm:
Ed - on fixed terms you might be able to persuade me, but I hope you’ll forgive my scepticism about Labour promising knee-jerk legislation on the back of a crisis of their own making. It’s not the way to formulate policy amd when it comes to constitutional issues there are numerous examples of their solutions causing bigger problems than the issue they were trying to tackle.
Whatever reservations politicos have about Harriet Harman (and indeed her politics are risible), the fact that she was elected to DPM by something approximating to a democratic process, means that she has more legitimacy than Gordon Brown. Good luck with renewing the blogging by the way.
canvas said on October 8th, 2007 at 8:26 pm:
Why have you crossed out most of your blog?
Weird.
Marquee Mark said on October 9th, 2007 at 7:08 am:
I guess you’ll have plenty to say later today when Crystal Tipps and Alastair* announce their plans to park their IHT Tank on the Tory lawn!
*for those too young to remember:
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/kids/crystaltipps.htm
“Crystal had buggy eyes and an omni-present inane grin. Alistair was a dog….”