Time for a Conclave

Our MPs, and especially the ones who make up our government, are now actively harming the country day by day. We not only need a good answer to the problems of Brexit (or at least a less-worse answer), but we also need it quickly. And amongst the problems are that we have too many outside considerations crowding in - whether it's appealing to the people, playing for a General Election or people who are leaders of parties but are not themselves MPs getting involved.

I have a solution.

The word "conclave" literally means "with key". When the time comes to elect a new Pope, the Cardinals are locked into a debating chamber, and have to stay there until they come to a decision.

So, what I recommend is that we do exactly that - our 650 MPs are locked into the chamber, with no access to telephones or the internet, no contact with the outside world, and with the microphones and cameras switched off. Three times a day, we'll deliver them bread and water, and those who have medical needs will have those tended to (I'm not a monster). But otherwise they stay there until they choose from the three available options: Theresa's Deal, No Deal, or Remain.

Once they come up with an answer, whichever one it is, we then take that to the people in a referendum: "Do you agree that we should {chosen option here}? Yes/No".

If the answer is "No", the MPs have to go back in and choose again from the remaining options. (It is possible, of course, that the people might choose to reject all three options in referendums, and our MPs have to go back in to choose from zero choices. That's a feature, not a bug.)

But if the answer is "Yes", the chosen option will then have an impeccable double mandate - it will have been agreed by the majority of the House and a majority of the people. So that's what we'll do.

(Of course, there's no chance of this happening - Westminster runs on conventions and rules, and none of them allow for something like this. Unfortunately, the conventions and rules don't seem to actually offer any way out of the mess. It should, hopefully, now be clear to all involved that politics as practiced in Westminster is just not fit for purpose. Once this mess is dealt with, we need reform - I would submit that that starts with a proper written constitution and goes from there.)