John Bercow has threatened Boris Johnson that he will be prepared to rip up the parliamentary rulebook to stop any illegal attempt by the prime minister to take the UK out of the EU without a deal on 31 October...In a direct warning to No 10, the Speaker of the House of Commons said he is prepared to allow “additional procedural creativity” if necessary to allow parliament to block Johnson from ignoring the law...“If we come close to [Johnson ignoring the law], I would imagine parliament would want to cut off that possibility … Neither the limitations of the existing rulebook or ticking of the clock will stop it doing so,” he said, delivering the annual Bingham lecture in London. “If I have been remotely ambiguous so far, let me make myself crystal clear. The only form of Brexit that we have, whenever that might be, will be a Brexit that the House of Commons has explicitly endorsed.”
Since this House of Commons at least has refused to endorse any kind of Brexit, this means he is willing to stop Brexit.The article goes on to say that he also wants a written constitution to 'stop “executive malpractice or fiat”'. It should stop any particular Speaker's 'additional procedural creativity' as well
There has also been a response to the latest EC ambitions to maintain European culture. D Trilling writes:
How would you define the “European way of life”? What unique, homogenous culture is shared by people who live in Bolton, Palermo or Plovdiv – but not those who live outside Europe? And what threatens it so profoundly that the European Union has this week nominated a minister with responsibility for defending it?
Good questions.They might well be asked of Remainer ideology.
Just asking these questions shows what a fatuous and deeply sinister stunt it was...
And with a more sinister purpose for Trilling:
What supposedly threatens the “European way of life”, according to the commission, is migration – the new role incorporates the duties of the previous migration commissioner, bundling together the responsibility for controlling Europe’s external borders with security, employment and education...this is about more than language: European commissioners are the EU’s executive branch, and its most powerful officials; they draft laws and see that treaties are enforced....Since the Brexit referendum, the EU, especially among liberals, has often been held up as the antidote to nationalism. Yet for all its laudable aims – and its successes in reducing conflict between states – it plays host to its own, pernicious kind of civilisational chauvinism
It's deeper still:
the sociologist Sivamohan Valluvan argues in a thought-provoking new book, Europe is experiencing its third historic surge of nationalism...The long history of ideas about European superiority, and the racist logic through which they were enforced, cannot be ignored here.
It is understandable that people in Britain might feel there are more pressing issues than appointments in Brussels. But the rightwards drift of the commission has an important connection to our own arguments about Brexit. The question of the UK’s future relationship with the EU has to be more than a choice between fighting to remain within an unchanged Fortress Europe, or leaving to create our own Fortress Britain instead.
Nasty dilemma indeed.Thank goodness there are other things to worry about:
He, she, they … should we now clarify our preferred pronouns when we say hello?
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