Tag Archives: wera hobhouse mp

Wera Hobhouse MP

Wera Hobhouse: The road to stopping Brexit

By Wera Hobhouse MP | Thu 6th December 2018 - 4:47 pm

As an MP, do I have to vote for any Brexit that is put in front of me in parliament?

My duty in our representative democracy is to listen to the people and respect their views. It is also to use my own informed judgement of what is the best for my constituents and the country as a whole.

So to the question, my answer is no. If any Brexit brought to parliament is, in my judgement bad for my constituents and my country, I should not vote for it.

The Prime Minister is using a different argument. She says we have to leave the EU even if it bad for the country because the people voted for it. She suggests that the dutiful thing for MPs in light of the 2016 referendum is to vote for something that we believe is bad for this country. On the contrary, we have a duty to do the opposite.

Does this mean we defy the will of the people? No, because British democracy is a representative democracy and not just a direct democracy.

What we MPs cannot do on our own, however, in light of the referendum in 2016, is to choose to stay in the EU. We can legitimately reject any particular Brexit deal in accordance with our judgement but we cannot move from there and cancel Brexit by ourselves. This is the true meaning of the referendum result.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 23 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • User AvatarInnocent Bystander 23rd Apr - 8:07am
    David, Then why didn't these powerful lies work on you? If they worked on others? Do you consider yourself as "those people"? Or are they...
  • User AvatarRichard Easter 23rd Apr - 7:44am
    As for ID cards, wasn't the complaint related to them being biometric and all the information they would keep - for example all known addresses,...
  • User AvatarRichard Easter 23rd Apr - 7:41am
    TIG / Change UK are not liberals. They are a mixture of Europhile Labour neo-cons, Pro EU Thatcherites and the politically homeless who have no...
  • User Avatartonyhill 23rd Apr - 7:13am
    As the subject of ID cards has come up several times in relation to Change UK, and comments from LibDems in response seem largely in...
  • User AvatarNonconformistradical 23rd Apr - 7:11am
    @Katherine Pindar "Perhaps her generous withdrawal will cause a rethink by the Change UK leaders, which would be a real boost to the possibility of...
  • User AvatarIan 23rd Apr - 7:06am
    The answer to the question at the top of the article is that they would be worth joining if they represented the best way of...