Saturday, August 31, 2019

Ainda a suspensão da democracia parlamentar no Reino Unido

Johnson suspends parliament to force a crash out Brexit, por Simon Wren-Lewis:

On Brexit at least (and who knows what may be next) UK democracy has been suspended. Yesterday the Prime Minister drastically reduced the number of days parliament will sit until we automatically crash out of the EU. On the critical issue of Brexit, the Prime Minister has become an unelected dictator. He intends to use his dictatorial power to restrict the supply of medicines and food to the British people. (...)

Like so much in the UK’s unwritten constitution, the Queens right to decide when parliament sits is a hangover from our history that has been allowed to remain because it was understood that the Queen would follow the advice of the Prime Minister (the last monarch that didn’t had his head cut off) and the Prime Minister would respect the will of the parliament. In the UK parliament is sovereign, but only because there were unwritten norms that assumed no government would be undemocratic enough to disobey. (...)

Does this affront to democracy matter if it is restricted to the issue of Brexit, where a referendum voted to leave? It matters because in that referendum the Leave side only talked about leaving with a deal. That is the mandate that this advisory referendum provided - to leave with a deal. So leaving with no deal does not even respect the referendum.result.
Umas notas:

- como já escrevi, acho que o melhor era um referendo final a duas voltas com três opções - sair sem acordo, sair pelo acordo negociado pela May e a UE e não sair

- penso que o grande problema desta suspensão do parlamento talvez não seja tanto esta suspensão especifica, mas sobretudo, num país sem constituição escrita e que depende muito de "normas de boa educação", ter-se estabelecido o principio que é aceitável um governo suspender o parlamento por razões políticas, para evitar perder uma votação








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