Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
You are correct to point at the importance of convention in parliamentary affairs. But to be fair to Seph, you should not discount the importance of precedents, which are equally important.
|
Again, just because you can arrange words in a sentence doesn’t mean you’re making any sense.
Precedent and convention are two cheeks of the same arse. There is a reason why the last member of the Lords to become PM sought election to the Commons at the earliest opportunity. By 1963 our parliamentary democracy had matured to the point where it was no longer acceptable for the Prime Minister not to be directly accountable to the elected house. In effect, the precedent of Alex Douglas Home resigning his peerage so he could get elected created the convention that the PM must be a sitting MP.
Neither precedent nor convention simply arise out of nowhere. There is always some pressing reason, whether it be a national emergency or a sea-change in attitudes around what’s deemed acceptable. It is highly unlikely that any national emergency is about to arise that would justify creating an unelected prime minister, even temporarily, and your attempt to raise precedent as a possible reason why it might happen is as daft as Seph’s.
---------- Post added at 14:52 ---------- Previous post was at 14:51 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
If Frost wanted to be PM and he was elected Leader of the Conservatives, he would renounce his peerage, stand for election in a safe seat and, when elected, become PM in the normal way.
Don't you think this is possible?
|
Politically, no, it’s not possible, and that’s all that actually matters. We have almost arrived at the point where the changing of a prime minister mid-term makes demands for a snap general election irresistible. To think any party would get away with arranging a safe by election seat for an ex-member of the House of Lords is pure fantasy.