[jonbxx]

Originally Posted by Chris

If Brexit has revealed anything, it’s how little many people understand of parliamentary procedures and the difference between a motion designed to exhibit the will of the House and a Bill which must go through several distinct phases before coming into force as an Act which makes, amends or repeals law.

Also, what is the role of a member of parliament? Is it to be a delegate of the people of their constituents or a trustee for their constituency?

Edmund Burke said in 1774;

'Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion … Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.'

Winston Churchill said in 1954;

'The first duty of a member of Parliament is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgement is right and necessary for the honour and safety of Great Britain. His second duty is to his constituents, of whom he is the representative but not the delegate. Burke's famous declaration on this subject is well known. It is only in the third place that his duty to party organization or programme takes rank. All these three loyalties should be observed, but there in no doubt of the order in which they stand under any healthy manifestation of democracy.'