Making a Mockery of the System

Yesterday, the SNP and Plaid Cymru used one of their "opposition days" to call for the dissolution of parliament and a General Election. The House of Commons therefore duly debated this matter before voting against.

Now, it should be noted that this was a very self-serving move. A General Election now would almost certainly see a Conservative win by a landslide... but not in Scotland. In Scotland, the Tories would probably gain a handful of seats, with the SNP making big gains. And then, when the Scottish Elections rolled around, the SNP could campaign on a platform that "we're being ruled by a Tory party that Scotland didn't vote for", and would probably make big gains again. That could then give them a platform to move for independence, and probably represents the best chance for independence to be achieved.

I also can't say I really support the move for a General Election at this time anyway. Voter confidence in any elected official is so low right now that we'd probably see a very low turn out, which means that any result wouldn't really represent the settled will of the people, so what's the point?

All that said, I was more than a little angry at the scenes shown from the debating chamber. Hardly any Labour MPs bothered to turn out for this debate, and virtually no-one from the government bothered to show. And, of course, when the vote came up, they all duly appeared, trooped to the appropriate places, and defeated the motion.

Of course, if asked about this, the various MPs will claim they were all catching up on important other work. If pressed on how they could possibly vote on the issue having ignored the debate, they would of course say that they were watching the debate from their offices.

Uh-huh. I'm sure that's true. I bet every single one of them watched the debate in appropriate detail, gave the matter all the consideration an issue of that importance should demand, and then went and voted in the manner their constituents would want them to, in order to best reflect the will of the people. I'm sure they didn't ignore the debate for all those hours, and then show up and vote because the whips told them to.

If we're going to pretend that "opposition days" are the right way for parliament to go about its business, then it should be mandated that the ruling party be appropriately represented at these debates. Take them seriously, or don't have them at all. Otherwise, they are little more than a sham.

And yet, they wonder why it is people are so disillusioned with politics in this country...