Thread: Updated: Boris resigns as party leader
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Old 21-01-2022, 18:34   #843
OLD BOY
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Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris View Post
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 ----------



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.
I think you are a bit of a purist, Chris! I'm sure that Bercow would have made maximum use of precedents to do something dubious!
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