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This is really quite simple: any democracy where the government refuses to obey the rule of law is no longer a democracy. theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
Mr Gove says parliament voted to trigger a50 with or without a deal. Indeed they did. It’s also now clear that Parliament wishes to change its mind. It does that *all the time*. It is the government which is preventing it from so doing. No Parliament can bind another.
When Parliament legislates you cant ignore it. No ifs. No buts. That’s it. It is, as we are so often reminded, sovereign.
However given parl has no other ideas about what to do (see indicative votes) if it seeks to bind the executive to a course of action it doesn’t want (and the legislature is unwilling to replace the exec) then if the govt wants an election, before Brexit day, MPs should grant it.
On a side note, if the govt wants to see how ugly things can get when we start picking and choosing which laws we observe, I look forward to seeing their reaction when the Scottish govt decides to hold IndyRef2 and unilaterally declares independence without a legal process.
It’s also true to say that any democracy which doesn’t implement referendum results, in the eyes of many voters, ceases to be a democracy too. Parliament has to acknowledge that. But there have to be better ways to do so than the govt at least being seen to risk the rule of law..
And as I’ve written many times in recent weeks, MPs cannot be the executive. Continuing to upend convention to seize control of the Commons and to try and bind govt in a million directions is not especially healthy nor productive. If you don’t like the govt. Change. The. Govt.
At the moment we have an executive so unsure of the confidence of the legislature it is fleeing it at every opportunity and attempting to shut it down and a legislature seeking to wound the executive to within an inch of its life but not kill it. It can’t go on.
The government is too frit to get a new parliament. The Parliament is too frit to get a new government. It’s a sorry state of affairs and fundamentally it’s that loop which is keeping us parked in this nightmare.
