MPs have failed the electorate – it’s time for a general election

“A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox…” This week’s events seem to justify a quick burst of Gilbert and Sullivan.

The situation is indeed paradoxical. The Remainers, including the Speaker who is supposed to be politically neutral, want the EU to keep its sovereign primacy over Parliament, but they are using Parliament to keep it in subjection to Brussels. The Leavers, on the other hand, want to restore Parliamentary supremacy, but they are playing fast and loose with Parliament in order to do so. This has been going on for over two years.

As a result our current Parliament has become a zombie. It has been able to do nothing as its various factions construct ever more arcane manoeuvres in their attempts to frustrate their opponents, manoeuvres which must exasperate and mystify the public. It has passed little in the way of legislation and, like all institutions without direction, has infected the body politic with drift and sourness.

It is in no faction’s interest to risk a general election, although Boris Johnson has been forced to seek one after his government lost its first three votes. So the House of Commons wrangles on, its only purpose to redraw the playing field to the advantage of one faction or combination of factions. Only then might it countenance going to the polls.

Since 2011, a new law has widened the gap between the Electorate and Parliament. The defeat of a government on a vote of no confidence used to provide a clear path to a general election. It was a path well understood, which was simple and which provided immediate recourse to the voter when a government no longer commanded the support of the House of Commons. The clarity of this convention kept in place a bridge between Parliament and the voters. This bridge has now been blown by the Fixed Term Parliament Act. It is a measure whose effect has been to further encourage faction and arcane argument within Parliament and thereby increase the electorate’s disconnection from Westminster. It has reinforced the voters’ contempt for the institution with which they should feel the greatest affinity.

Today’s mess has further divided an already bitterly divided country. In this country there is only one way to resolve the impasse: the present Parliament must stop its procedural self-abuse and vote for an immediate general election.

The body that has the authority to bring our arguments to a conclusion is the electorate. The sooner it is given the chance to exercise that authority the better, because, until the electorate decides, the losing side in the current Parliament will feel it has been stitched up by procedural skulduggery.

This Parliament has failed the electorate. It should now be up to the electorate to decide what Parliament’s complexion should be. When professional politicians fail us, our system implicitly relies on a belief that the wisdom of the crowd is ultimately greater than the judgement of the pros. Either may be proved right, but in a democratic age only the crowd has the ultimate authority to insist. So we can only hope that, in any fight between the pros and the crowd, the crowd is more often right than wrong.

We cannot know what the voters would decide. They might return a Remainer majority. They might return a majority which would refuse to leave without a deal. They might return a majority which would vote to leave by 31st October no matter what. They might even return a Parliament with no majority for any of the above. However, blocking an October election merely ensures that the present discord will continue. An October election at least gives us a chance to emerge from the mess. Since Parliament cannot bring itself to support the government, we must change the Parliament and allow the voters to decide, one way or the other.