Date 29th August 2019
Suspending Parliament reveals total contempt for our Parliamentary democracy.
Statement by Forest of Dean for Europe about the Government’s decision to suspend Parliament:
At a time of grave constitutional crisis this is not only shocking, it is also frightening. It reveals a total contempt for our Parliamentary democracy. It has no historic parallel since Charles I – and we know how that ended. As House of Commons speaker John Bercow has said today, “it’s an offence against the democratic process”.
The 2016 referendum was narrowly won. Brexit supporters said they wanted Parliamentary Sovereignty back. Yet this government are ready to set aside Parliamentary process, even Parliament itself, when it suits them. They do so on the flimsiest of mandates: they are a minority government, led by a Prime Minister who has been elected by 0.1% of the UK electorate.
This Prime Minister lied his way through the 2016 referendum campaign. The lying continues. He now pretends that the request to the Queen to suspend Parliament was all about preparing the ground for domestic legislation. This insults our intelligence. It is plain that the reason is that he knows that MPs will not allow him to drive the UK over the No Deal cliff. On top of being dishonest with the public, this government is also cowardly – it has so little confidence in its central policy that it won’t allow Parliament to debate or vote on it.
Shameful as this is, more frightening is the threat to democracy. Hiding behind the questionable mandate of a referendum that took place over three years ago, Boris Johnson’s government is acting as many previous tyrants have. He is trying to evade public and Parliamentary scrutiny. And he is trying to pit people against a democratically-elected Parliament. It is what fascist leaders did in Europe in the 1930s.
This attempt to by-pass Parliament must not succeed. Principled MPs will fight it in every way they can. It will be challenged in court. Above all, people in their millions need to protest: on the streets in London and elsewhere; in letters to their MPs; signing Parliamentary petitions; in the press; on social media – in every way possible. This is no longer about Brexit. It’s about whether we want to live in a Parliamentary democracy or under something that begins to resemble a dictatorship.
Forest of Dean for Europe calls on Mark Harper to disassociate himself from this move by his government. And we ask all those in the Forest of Dean who believe in democracy to add their voice to ours. This outrage must be stopped!