WE in the independence movement look at the work done in Westminster by our SNP MPs and we ask ourselves, is this the best way they can represent the people who voted for them to be their representatives?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that they are not good, hard-working, honest politicians – indeed I know that many of them are excellent politicians. I am not questioning their personal abilities or commitment either. I am questioning its value, in the Westminster snake-pit.
Ian Blackford says the Johnson government displays a “litany of failures”, and this he demonstrates by listing many of them, but it depends what you mean by “failure” because however poor many of these political ideas were, they are now part of UK Government policy, and however good many SNP policies were, they never got through the Commons. So Boris’s failures become UK policy, while our good policies get nowhere in the Commons and earn us nothing but sneers and insults from fools.
READ MORE: Michael Russell: Why Dawn Butler was right and why Boris Johnson must start telling the truth
Mike Russell writes that Westminster has “forfeited the right, not just to respect, but to continued unreformed existence” (Why Dawn Butler was right ... and why Boris Johnson must start telling the truth, Jul 24). Dawn Butler got thrown out of the Commons for pointing out that Boris Johnson is a serial liar, which everyone – including the Speaker, including Johnson himself – knows to be true. What sort of madcap institution is this?
Whatever it is, it is planning to undermine our Scottish Government and institutions if we are foolish enough to allow it to do so. We would be foolish indeed to stand by and allow this to happen.
We need a different strategy for Westminster than to just carry on following the rules, because these rules will lead our country to disaster. So we need to change the rules. Fortunately Dawn Butler has shown us how to use Westminster’s out-of-date customs to assist us to effectively change the rules.
The SNP MPs should decide that they should all speak in the House and demand that Boris Johnson come to the Commons and apologies for lies he has told there. Now they could all refer to the same lie, or better still each chose a separate lie for him to apologise for – there are quite a few available.
READ MORE: Members who fail to challenge lies in the Commons are not ‘honorable’
Now we know where that would lead. Each of them would be expelled from the Commons, but instead of accepting that and returning after a few days’ suspension “punishment”; they should reject this and write to the Speaker ,insisting they were telling the truth and demanding he insist that Johnson come and apologise to the Commons.
That would create a constitutional crisis. One in which Westminster had expelled SNP MPs for insisting on telling the truth and demanding that the Speaker operate the rule properly and insist that all MP should apologise to the Commons for any lie they tell there.
Expelled Scottish MPs could meet in the new UK-built offices in Edinburgh and follow all the Westminster proceeding and send in their votes on all voting issues. Of course Westminster would ignore this, but our votes are ignored anyway so no change there, except that the world would see this.
This would get worldwide press attention and the SNP MPs would be in a strong position, being expelled from the UK Parliament for telling the truth and insisting the others who lie to the parliament must apologise for such lies. What democrat could argue with that?
Come on, Ian Blackford, don’t just tell us that Boris has failed, take action to bring it about.
Andy Anderson
Saltcoats
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