Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament

Re:Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament by bertil on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:53PM (#18918316)

The argument about lack of control is not true: Uk has had very significant influence over a lot of the decision process in the EU. They have democratically elected representatives and career civil servants, like for local and national institutions in the UK. A British voter doesn’t control EU any less than they control the UK.

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Re:Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament by nicky0 on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @05:00AM (#18919553)

Not so. The UK parliament is at the root of democratic authority in the UK. The European Parliament is a largely powerless rubber-stamping body.

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Re:Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament by pmyteh on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @05:41AM (#18919718)

Thirty years ago, maybe. It's now got extensive co-decision powers and is a serious body in its own right.

In fact, there's an argument that the in-built government majority in the Commons makes that far more of a powerless rubber-stamping body in normal times (recent events notwithstanding!)

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Re:Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament by orbifold on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @07:11AM (#18920135)

A serious body that is inhabited by Front National, AFD, Die Partei (they switch their parliamentary representative every 3 month, so that 4 people get a salary of ~30000 a year) and other reprehensible or joke parties.

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Re:Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament by pjc50 on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @07:35AM (#18920256)

I don't think this is actually a bug; I think small fringe parties deserve representation, and it's an inescapable consequence of being serious about proportional representation.

Arguably Farage has been a "shadow" party leader in the UK for years. I wonder how differently things would have gone under a PR system where there were a few UKIP MPs off in one corner. As it was, they had no influence right up to the point where they "flipped" a large section of the Tory party into being pro-Brexit.

I also think that Farage shows that having a safe seat in the media is far more important than in Parliament for small parties; the national media have consistently given him far more coverage than comparable small or regional parties, because he's "good entertainment".

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Re:Brexit Deal Fails in Parliament by nicky0 on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @09:02AM (#18920877)

Except that the the UK the goverment is formed from the elected members of the house. In the EU the only body with real power, the commision, is appointed by a process in which the "elected" president of the commision is the only candidate.

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