May's dangerous game

This statement was even worse than I was expecting.

Theresa May, who campaigned for Remain, is now blaming Parliament for the deadlock. Yet Parliament wasn't involved in negotiating the deal - that was the responsibility of May and the government. Two Brexit secretaries resigned in the process because they thought the resulting deal wasn't good enough, while the overall rate of resignations under May's premiership is outstanding. At no point was Parliament involved in the negotiation process. Indeed, May said very clearly at the start that she wouldn't even be giving a running commentary. She was also highly reluctant to allow Parliament a "meaningful" vote at all - that only came about because of a court ruling.

Continuing to blame others for her own mess is a direct subversion of the democratic process. Parliament was not involved in the negotiation so MPs feel no sense of ownership of the deal - it is very much May's deal, not their deal. They are not duty-bound to vote in favour of whatever deal is put before them. To insist that they do so makes a mockery of the idea the vote was "meaningful" and therefore undermines Parliament's democratic sovereignty, which was supposedly what Brexit was all about.

In order for a vote to have meaning, there must be an alternative option available. While May dragged her heels even on the first vote, when it was (spectacularly) defeated an alternative should have been immediately presented. As it happened no backup plan was even considered, so no alternative came forth. There was no way Parliament could have made a meaningful choice because they simply weren't allowed to. Instead, May insisted that they vote again on the same deal. It was again rejected, qualifying May for the proverbial definition of insanity in doing the same thing again and expecting a different result.

It is not Parliament's fault that MPs keep doing their duty by declining a deal they had no part in and don't want. The responsibility to present them with an alternative rests squarely with May, not the opposition.

May further undermines the democratic process, ironically, by appealing directly the people. This insults MPs for doing their job while she avoids taking responsibility for what is manifestly her own failure. Her appeal to the public is also pragmatically foolish, as only 37% of the electorate voted for Brexit*. For her to claim that she is doing what the people wants insults those who voted against Brexit, never mind that it remains completely unclear if Brexit is still the majority choice - still less if May's deal is what the people want, of if they think MPs are responsible. This is a something that Brexiteers of all positions have been guilty of : presuming from a very simple question that their specific version of Brexit is what the people crave, despite the fact that no-one has asked the people if that's the case.

* EDIT : And according to this poll, the public blame the government more than they do MPs. 

May's reference to "arcane points of procedure" is a clear shot at the Speaker, who is also doing his duty to protect representative democracy. Forbidding identical votes is a long-established procedure and self-evidently a way to ensure that votes have consequences and therefore meaning. As he explained, the reason this procedure has not been used in recent years is only because identical motions have not been presented to the House. Thus the objective of the convention has been satisfied without recourse to forbidding repeated votes.

Not that May is the sole architect of her own nightmare though. By repeatedly refusing discussions and insisting with obscene single-mindedness on a general election, Corbyn reveals himself to have no more negotiation skills than May. The opposition are hardly blameless, yet ultimately as Prime Minister the burden of responsibility must fall on May. She invoked Article 50. She called a general election. She decided what kind of Brexit deal the people wanted. She forbade discussion with the opposition. She prevented any alternatives from being considered. She decided that MPs got the result wrong. She left them with an impossible choice. And lest we forget, less recently, she voted against things she claims to have later changed her mind on without justification, voted against the result of a previous referendum and even to try and implement a second referendum to revoke the first one.

I'm not saying that all votes must be considered binding or advisory - far from it. But without some consistency, some clear procedures outlined as to when the result of a vote must be inviolable and when it must be tempered with flexibility, the process becomes a farce. By blaming everyone but herself for her own mistakes and arbitrarily deciding which votes to (supposedly) respect and which to reject, the only reasonable conclusion is that May hates democracy.

Theresa May makes Brexit statement

Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street. (Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe) ----------------------- Get more news at our site - https://www.channel4.com/news/ Follow us: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/Channel4News