Having completed my own Brexit nearly two years ago I hadn’t expected too much more from my home country. But the political meanderings over two years since the vote have been the gift that keeps on giving. And over the past two weeks I have been in higher demand than usual by US acquaintances looking for answers.
Being an authoritative source on all matters British and political has its responsibilities. That hasn’t prevented me claiming that every time anyone in the UK says ‘the Queen’ or ‘Her Majesty’ they have to add ‘God Bless Her’. But by and large I have been a serious commentator on what are extraordinary times.
It’s very difficult to explain the role of the Queen (God Bless Her) in a Parliamentary democracy. There is also a touching faith in this ex-colony that she is the smartest person in the country and should just step in to direct MPs on which way is up. It’s particularly difficult to explain that she has to avoid becoming involved in politics.
That leads to a whole bunch of unanswerable questions about why she gets to pick the Prime Minister, give Royal Assent to Bills to make them law, and why it’s Her Majesty’s Government. This gets compounded when I comment that Boris Johnson’s majority would have been lost long ago if the Sinn Fein members chose to sit. I’d invite everyone to work out why a democratically elected Member of Parliament can’t sit because they won’t swear allegiance to someone who has no direct authority over them.
The House of Lords is another source of mystery and amusement to an incredulous American. The notion of an unelected group being able to stymie the progress of Bills passed by elected MPs is as mystifying to me as anyone. I have taken to calling them the House of Unrepresentatives and relying on interminable, dull, repetitive detail to bore my listeners – a bit like an ordinary day in the House of Lords really.
For the interested (and this is a bit of a pop quiz for readers in the UK) I explain that the full name is the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament Assembled. It meets in a Palace and doesn’t have a fixed size but its make up includes 92 hereditary peers, 26 bishops, and a bunch of people appointed by the Queen (God Bless Her). At this point I usually have to confirm that Her Majesty remains above politics and only acts on advice.
One contention of the Americans is that this is a separation of powers issue which arises because we don’t have a written Constitution. My first line of defence is to argue that it is difficult to see how a document written in the 1780s is entirely fit for purpose over 220 years later and they spend a lot of time in court arguing over interpretations. A little more smugly, I usually go on to point out that the first ten amendments, passed in 1791, are largely based on Magna Carta (1215) and the English Bill of Rights (1689).
Talk then turns to the machinations in Parliament and the role of the Prime Minister. Here, the difficulty is that there is a tendency to confuse his role and powers with those of the President in the US. There is some consternation but also some envy when I explain that the Prime Minister is not elected by the populace and that there’s a reasonable tradition of Prime Ministers being ousted by their own party.
Explaining the powers of the Prime Minister is a bit like trying to explain dark matter. Aficionados believe it is exists and there is even a reasonable theoretical basis for suggesting it makes a real difference. But every time push comes to shove the evidence disappears as quickly as a manager of Chelsea football club.
Boris Johnson losing his first three or four votes has made this even more complicated than explaining how Theresa May’s rose to the top political post in the UK after a career with no visible achievements. Equally difficult is explaining why Boris has been able to instantly make the leader of the opposition look like a statesman of gravitas, sense and focus. And neither is as satisfying as explaining that Jo Johnson’s election and appointment to a Government post was nothing like the rise of Ivanka and Jared to positions of authority in the White House.
Speaking of Jo Johnson reminds me that Brexit has been a goldmine for memes. My favourite three currently are:
- Jo Johnson resigned to spend less time with his family
- James Bond to the Queen ‘The Members of Parliament, Ma’am?’. The Queen, ‘Yes, 007, all of them’
- The picture of Jacob Rees-Mogg lounging on a bench in the House of Commons being turned into a brilliant visual where he is cuddled by a topless man
Grimmer, but beautifully framed in its righteous scorn, was a comment in the speech by Sir Nicholas Soames after being removed from the Conservative party for voting against the Government. He commented on the actions of ‘…my right-honourable friend the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House and other members of the Cabinet whose serial disloyalty has been an inspiration for so many of us.’ Truth, humour and sadness captured in a dozen words.
All this has a serious side and for expats the gloom of the falling pound has only been matched by the sense that the country is being ridiculed for its introspection and in-fighting. But then, almost miraculously, another day of extraordinary tension showed a silver lining and confirmed something I had been saying for months to my American friends.
I had patiently explained that MPs are representatives and therefore have a duty to do what they think is in the best interests of their constituents even if their constituents didn’t agree. I also said that MPs could and would vote against their party on issues of conscience. The voting, changing of party and ousting of members from the conservative party brought this home in spectacular style.
It was a matter of enormous pride to see MPs face down bullying, threats and the prospect of their careers ending in order to vote in the national interest. For those I know in the US it was great theatre but it has been interesting to see them reflect that partisan politics mean it has become impossible to imagine such a widespread demonstration of individual accountability in their Senate. At least members of the Mother of Parliaments, for all the chaos, have shown their willingness to take responsibility whatever the personal cost.