Originally Posted by
Coney
Despite the BBC and press headlines, the Government did NOT lose in the courts today. The Executive lost. The Government in Britain is Parliament, not No 10. This was clarified in the 1980s by the high court.
The judgement clarified what we fought for in the civil war in the 1640s - that the royal perogative was subject to the will of the people expressed by their representatives in Parliament. The monarch does not have the power to rule without permission of Parliament and neither does the Prime Minister.
This issue is more important than Brexit or Bremain - it is about the leaders being reminded that they govern by consent of Parliament and are not to just make decisions without getting that consent first.
However, there is a problem with the government in this country and has been since the year dot. Although we have a form of democracy where we can choose our representatives in parliament, most people do not take an interest either through stupidity or downright ignorance so they have no chance of getting an MP to represent them. They just listen to the latest sound bites and believe in the crap they are fed. Along side this are parties run by marketing types. Once upon a time, MPs had to go out and speak to their voters. They got on stages, in towns, etc. and told people what they thought and what they would do, and the (in the main) meant it and believed in it - they actually stood for something and you could vote yeah or nay. Nowadays, they have marketing people who look at what might go down well, teach them to use weasel words and to look nice and as a result we have MPs who have no conviction in what they do - they just do what seems likely to keep things ticking over with no end target or purpose. Farage did not win because he won arguments - he won because he looked as if he believed in something and the opposition had no conviction politicians to stand up and argue back with the same passion. I still see no sign of that from Labour, Conservative or LibDem. (I can barely remember what the LibDem new leader looks like - they have become a joke since Clegg sold out in 2010 and sounded the death knell of his party.)
Be that as it may, while we might not have everything we want, we should defend the supremacy of Parliament over the Executive as the cost of not doing that is too high. We have had this system for 350+ years and it has kept the country fairly stable while broadly moving forwards (albeit with a way to go still) and relative stability is more valuable than some might realise.