[daveeb]

Originally Posted by Chris

How absurd is it, though, that “the law”, which to you and I means things like don’t steal stuff, don’t evade tax, in this case means “you must attend political negotiations and write a letter specifying that your position is X”.

What Parliament has done is something no previous Parliament has - it has attempted to use the mechanism of legislation to manage the specific actions of government. What it has done is constitutionally extremely difficult and it does nobody any favours for Parliament’s supporters to pretend that this piece of legislation is qualitatively similar to the criminal law the rest of us (usually) obey with little reservation.

There is a very ancient convention that says that parliament legislates and the government governs. Parliament is here attempting to govern, and in the long run its decision to use its legislative powers in this way, just because it could, might yet prove to be extremely destabilising. Just look at the belligerent briefings that keep coming out of No.10. We are heading for a clash of epic proportions and it seems destined to end up in the Supreme Court right at the moment when in previous times a scandal half this bad would naturally have put the matter back to the people via a general election.

Make no mistake we are in an enormous mess, whose consequences will be felt for decades.

Absolutely agree. And yes the speaker is using his powers in ways not seen before but then again so is the PM. it's extraordinary times we're seeing.