Lib Dem MPs have a relatively rare opposition day debate this week. They are approaching it a bit differently by giving you a chance to decide the subject.
What’s particularly brilliant is that you get to vote preferentially too. That’ll be useful for next year’s Ashdown Prize organisers to note.
An email from Alistair Carmichael landed the other day:
On Tuesday 10th July, our MPs have an opposition day debate in Parliament.
This means that we can pick one topic and have MPs debate and vote on it in Westminster.
And we want to hear what you think MPs should be debating on Tuesday. The three options are:
• A final vote on the Brexit deal
• Sustainability of the NHS into the future
• Donald Trump’s visit to the UK
You don’t have to be a member to vote. Anyone can take part. Just click here.
They have chosen three topical subjects. You can see Christine Jardine cast some shade at Trump, or our MPs work out a plan to keep the NHS going to its 80th birthday and beyond or see Tom Brake lead on the need for a People’s Vote on the Brexit Deal. You have until midnight tonight to cast your vote.
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5 Comments
I joined the party as a member because the LibDems were the only party supporting our remaining in the EU. Trump’s visit is not worthy of debate, it’s happening! The NHS is important but the debate is not as urgent as the EU. The Tories would still like to have us crashing out of Euro next March! We can’t have this. So, ‘A Final Vote on the Brexit’ deal appears to be the most critical to me. Whilst it will probably have no impact, it is still important to show that actually the whole country is not in favour of leaving Europe!
I guess this is the sort of public engagement Corbyn was successful in with his new style of PMQs
And I agree with Tamzie Hollands. I personally think it would be daft to squander this rare opportunity to discuss Donald Trump’s visit. But no doubt dome people would approve of such virtue-signaling
I agree with Tamzie Hollands in that we ought to leave the Trump visit well alone – the Trump Baby Balloon is enough for me. However “A final vote on the Brexit deal” brings its own problems if that means a referendum. It lends legitimacy to the last referendum which looks more like a dubious process as every week passes. The Labour MPs may be inching towards a stay in the EU position and I wish we could say something that would help them along the road but I suspect we can’t. Parliament should be voting to remain before or after a General Election. Some of us have no wish to “respect the referendum” just as we have no need to “respect the office of the President of the USA” so long as the incumbent doesn’t (see “balloon” above). Sorry not to be more helpful!
“I guess this is the sort of public engagement Corbyn was successful in with his new style of PMQs”
Or a nifty email harvesting ruse 🙂
Brexit is by far the most important , even if many are fed up with it. But we must use the opportunity to put across some passion – not just the economic side and where are the countries to get deals with – India with more visa’s, Australia 23 million population, New Zealand 5. America always a very tough bargainer, imagine a Trump one? There is the endless list of where the EU contributes – deprived areas like Wales, films like The King’s Speech, the National Trust,which I only heard of by accident, giving financial support for countries coming out from Communism with possible civil wars. An important emotional element for Brexiteers is “we stood alone”. We did stand alone for a vital period but we had arms under Lend Lease from America, troops from the Commonwealth and the Empire, and we would not have won the War if Hitler had not invaded Russia rather than Britain at a cost of 20 odd million Russian dead.
The Boris Johnson picture of Europe is the one put across by our hostile press which badly needs correcting .Decisions are made by the elected ministers of the 28 countries and the elected parliament and apparently we got our way 80-90 percent of the time. Remember the single market? The EU Commission is the EU civil service employing about 22,000, with I think translators and interpreters on top. Leicester employed 14 thousand
And so on.