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November 1, 2006
Though the Westminster crowd say that parliament is sovereign I hadn't realized that the British parliament had so little power against the dominant executive. Consider what Simon Jenkins has written in an op-ed in The Guardian. He says:
Last night Britons were offered the spectacle of their MPs pleading with the government to be allowed an inquiry into the Iraq war. For all the vigour of the debate, they were still humiliated by the government's supporters. While British soldiers ram democracy down others' throats at the point of a gun, their representatives seem incapable of performing democracy's simplest ritual, challenging the executive.
Well the House of Representatives in Australia doesn't either. And the Senate has been captured. Jenkins goes on to say that:
Britain has seen no indictment of the pre-invasion mendacity or the lack of post-invasion planning. The Commons has not cross-examined returning generals or diplomats with anything but cringing deference. Occasional hearings by the defence and foreign affairs committees have yielded only pat repetitions of the official line. British MPs enjoy themselves in Basra palace, where they congratulate the army on behaving better than the US. But frank military assessment must be gleaned from gossip, seminars, websites and the occasional general cutting loose on television.
Gee 'cringing deference' really does sound like Australia.
Jenkins adds:
Britain's debate on the Iraq war is taking place in the media. It should be in parliament. Parliament's mission is to "legislate, deliberate and scrutinise". Since it no longer legislates independent of government (except on such trivial matters as hunting) and its debates are worse attended than a pub game of Trivial Pursuit, it is left with scrutiny. Of that there is none. The Commons has become little more than an electoral college for the prime minister.
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