What is "Britishness"? Part 8: Parliamentary sovereignty

The British like to be in control, or at least think that they are. Maybe it is our pride, or pugnacity, or both but we do not like feeling beholden to anyone. We want to be seen to stand on our own feet and do things on our own terms. So, Brexit was pitched by its proponents as a bid to break free from the ties that bound us to the EU and reassert our sovereignty by taking back control. It’s a narrative that plays well in the Tory heartlands and the new ‘blue wall’ constituencies in the North where responsibility for inequality and lack of opportunity has been firmly, but unfairly, laid at the EU’s door.

When the Brexit deal was finally announced in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve, the difference of opinion between Britain and the EU over the definition of sovereignty was stark. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged that “Of course, this whole debate has always been about sovereignty. But we should cut through the soundbites and ask ourselves what sovereignty actually means in the 21st century. For me, it is about being able to seamlessly do work, travel, study and do business in 27 countries. It is about pooling our strength and speaking together in a world full of great powers. And in a time of crisis, it is about pulling each other up. Instead of trying to get back to your feet, alone. And the European Union shows how this works in practice. No deal in the world can change the reality of [the] gravity in today’s economy. And in today’s world, we are one of the giants.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement was the usual mix of bombast and triumphalism. “For the first time since 1973 we will be an independent coastal state with full control of our waters. We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny. We have taken back every jot and tittle of our regulation in a way that is complete and unfettered.”

An old iron cannon at Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland which once formed part of the coastal defences against invasion. Photo by jirivondrous on 123RF.

Parliamentary sovereignty, i.e. the supreme legal authority of parliament to create or axe any law, is a fundamental part of the UK’s constitution. Generally, its legislation cannot be overruled by the Courts and no Parliament can pass a law that a future Parliament cannot change. The UK’s decision to become a member of the European Community in 1973 altered and limited this principle by requiring Parliament to legislate consistently with European Community law. There has to be uniformity throughout the European Union to maintain the unity of the Common Market. This means that in the event of a conflict with domestic law, European Community law takes precedence. Whilst the Treaty of Lisbon (2009) introduced Qualified Majority Voting in the European Union for a range of policy areas, others still require unanimity (i.e. remain subject to national veto), such as membership, taxation, Union finances, citizenship, and common foreign, defence and security policy. This qualification to Parliamentary sovereignty was an acceptable trade-off as long as successive governments perceived the loss of outright control was outweighed by the benefits of belonging to the Single Market. In 2016, the Vote Leave campaign’s ‘Take Back Control’ slogan pushed the sovereignty argument and marginally tipped the balance towards leaving the European Union (51.9% to 48.1%) amongst the 72.2% of the electorate who voted in the referendum. In the past, Britain has tried to use relationships with other European counties to strengthen its position and safeguard its interests. It has not always been plain sailing but the European Union has provided an unprecedented period of peace and stability in the region. The irony of Brexit is that in an increasingly nationalistic world, by cutting ties with our closest neighbours and leaving the world’s largest trading bloc, it feels that we have reduced our influence and control over our own destiny rather than increased it. Time will tell.

On the face of it, this renewed right-wing support for Parliamentary sovereignty seems pro-democratic but it is feigned to provide cover for undemocratic forces to subvert our ostensibly representative and democratic system to serve the will of a wealthy and powerful minority of political donors. Under this guise, a government with a whopping 80-seat majority can be elected on just 43.6% of the popular vote on a turnout of only 67.3% and can then do as it pleases during the life of the Parliament based on the presumed consent of the electorate. The Prime Minister is able to assume all the vestiges of monarchy to rule in an absolutist way. The House of Commons is side-lined as an unelected executive sets policies which are announced by Downing Street rather than presented to Parliament. The suppression of debate, media patronage, independent scrutiny being ignored or removed, and a disregard for due process, protocols and traditional ways of doing things, are all signs of this insidious power-grab. It is becoming clear that our unwritten constitution offers no immutable checks and balances on a government with an absolute majority, no matter how reckless, disingenuous or catastrophic its decisions might be for the country.

There is a litany of ways in which this Government has sought to avoid transparency and stifle opposition. We must remember every time that they have sought to frustrate democracy, because over the next four years, at a time of their choosing, they are going to call an election. Remember their unlawful prorogation of Parliament, their habit of presenting long and detailed texts at the last minute to avoid scrutiny, their frequent announcements of policies before they have been through Parliament, also their arbitrary and cynical decision to prevent MPs from participating in debates remotely when they were prevented from attending in person during this pandemic. Remember how they continue to stuff the House of Lords with grace and favour appointments to ensure compliance. Remember their approval of the controversial Westferry housing development that gave rise to a “cash for favours” scandal for which no one has yet been held to account. Remember how they have failed the poor and vulnerable by voting not to feed children during school holidays and by refusing to extend the £20 a week Universal Credit uplift beyond April when we remain in the midst of a pandemic. Remember their disgraceful treatment of the thousands of victims of the Windrush scandal, which saw British citizens wrongly deported, sacked from their jobs and deprived of health care. The suffering and financial hardship inflicted on them was a direct result of the Government’s own ‘hostile environment’ policy and the derisory offers of compensation and delays in paying are truly unforgiveable. Remember how the victims of the Grenfell fire disaster were forgotten and how inadequate the response has been to the millions who are still languishing in potentially unsafe high-rise buildings with the same dangerous cladding and have no way out. Remember how they suppressed the report on Russian interference in UK democratic processes for 9 months and, then, following publication in July last year, refused to investigate the potential risks to national security raised by it. Remember how they have shown total disregard for the serious concerns raised by protests such as Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion and ignored petitions like that calling for legislation to ensure that food standards have to be maintained in trade negotiations. Remember their predilection for misleading use of data which was exposed by the UK Statistics Authority’s criticism of the Government’s daily coronavirus testing figures. Remember their abysmal handling of this pandemic. Do not allow the success of their vaccine roll-out to cloud our minds to the catastrophic failings that have got us to where we are. It did not have to be like this. Remember how they have continually prioritised the economy over lives by locking down too late and opening up too early, by leaving our borders open, by encouraging people to ‘eat out to help out,’ and by allowing family gatherings over Christmas and how, as a result, we have one of the highest death tolls in the world and an economic performance that is the worst in the G7. Remember how they have allowed the NHS to be stretched to breaking point and failed to protect care homes. Remember their shameless cronyism in awarding PPE, track and trace app contracts to friends and associates without proper checks and, when they failed to deliver, how they ducked responsibility for the resultant risk to life and waste of taxpayers’ money. Remember how calls for public inquiries into the breach of lockdown rules by the Prime Minister’s special adviser, and into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis have been dismissed out of hand.

There needs to be a reckoning – truths need to be faced and lessons need to be learned. Parliament may be sovereign but there also need to be effective ways to hold our politicians to account during the life of a Parliament, not just at the ballot box. It feels like an inflection point where hard-earned rights and privileges to participate in democracy, free speech and peaceful protest are being eroded before our eyes. Unless the British people pay attention to what is happening and are prepared to stand up for these rights with every fibre of their being, they will be lost. The power we hold is not only our vote but also our voice. As Alan Moore wrote in V for Vendetta (2005), “People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” My sense is that things are swinging the other way and whilst I would never advocate using acts of terrorism or violence to ignite the population as V did, I do believe that the only way to preserve governmental accountability is for ordinary people to be more politically aware and active: to make their voices heard and their votes count. It is not easy to make our objections known during a pandemic when mass gatherings and protest marches are illegal but there are other ways to have an impact. By being informed, writing to MPs, signing petitions, using social media positively to influence opinions, following independent media outlets, and boycotting pro-government/anti-opposition news sources, especially those that use click-bait to promote fake news and spread conspiracy theories, so they are deprived of advertising revenue.

For the rich and powerful elites who are seeking to run Britain for their own advantage, democracy is a time-consuming and expensive business. Having to take account of people’s views that might be different from their own is a chore that slows down policy-making and their opportunity to make a quick buck. Yet this is an essential part of the Parliamentary process to ensure there are no unintended consequences and to ride roughshod over it is reckless and shows disdain for the electorate. This process has been wounded, maybe fatally, by gerrymandering and filling the House of Lords with government sympathisers. An overhaul of Britain’s constitution and voting system is overdue but it is never going to happen under a government that benefits so greatly from the status quo. People cannot sit by and expect to get the kind of society they want if they take no interest in what our leaders are doing, ask no questions, or do not use their votes. Maybe times have changed and in modern Britain, too few care deeply enough about these things anymore. But if being democratic is still something we cherish and something that characterises us as a nation, now is the moment to make those feelings known. Otherwise, we British will forever be defined by political apathy in the face of an unprecedented assault on our hard-won democratic freedoms.