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1/ Amidst the latest attempt by Parliament to take some control over the Brexit agenda from the executive, a short thread on contradictory Brexity arguments about the UK parliament compared to the European Parliament.
2/ Among many false Brexity claims about the European Parliament, you sometimes see the (mostly) accurate claim that the European Parliament cannot initiate legislative proposals. (There are a handful of exceptions to the rule).
3/ Brexiters proceed from this mostly accurate claim to assert that therefore "the European Parliament is not a real Parliament, unlike Westminster". The flaw with this argument is that in practice the executive controls Parliament's agenda. Private members bills need govt time.
4/ In recent weeks, however, Parliament has changed the standing orders and taken some control of the agenda. In other words it's acted more like the Brexity claim. But Brexiters are apoplectic, claiming that this is a constitutional outrage.
5/ Some Brexiters have even argued that the government should prorogue parliament, or the Queen should refuse royal assent to a bill, so the executive can force through no deal Brexit against the wishes of the large majority of MPs. The level of hypocrisy is grotesque.
6/ So the Brexity comparison of the powers of the European Parliament to Westminster, misleading to start with, has now been undermined further by Brexiters' antipathy to Parliament doing what they said it did - never mind their desire to block bills and shut parliament down./
