Virtual Commons vote today - democracy further at risk

[Fambo Number Mive]

It's disgraceful that Rees-Mogg wants to get rid of the virtual parliament, which would make it harder for shielding MPs and MPs who live a long way from Westminster and don't want to sit for hours on petri dishes on wheels to vote or contribute to debates.

MPs will be voting at 1:30pm on whether to get rid of the current arrangements. If they vote in favour, it will mean that, as Pete Wishart says, millions of people from across the UK will be disenfranchised. Through no fault of their MPs own, their MP will not be able to vote or speak in debates if they are shielding or their constituency is a long way from Westminster - causing particular issues for MPs in Scotland, Northern Ireland  the North and the South West (the latter comprising several Lib Dem strongholds). I wonder how the newly elected Tory MPs in the North feel about this.

Having several hundred more people travelling into London and back from around the UK is also a great way for the virus to spread. Will MPs have their temperature checked before they enter the House of Commons? Will they agree to wear masks when on public transport?

This is simply an attempt to make things easier for Johnson and the majority of Tory MPs within a short train ride or drive of London. If MPs vote yes, they will have further damaged our excuse for a democracy.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has condemned the plans. MPs are having to travel in to vote against the plans, including some who are shielding for themselves or their families.

So far one Tory backbencher who is shielding - Robert Halfon - has criticised the government publicly. Will others?

[idunnosomename]

yes, it's ridiculous. i was just about to make a thread for this

https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/the-virtual-parliament-is-no-longer-necessary-we-can-do-so-much-better

Of course note Rees-Mogg's closing line: "Westminster has been the seat of our democracy for centuries. It will take more than the coronavirus to change that."

In the Middle Ages parliament was often held outside London. It's absolutely absurd to keep this centralised in fucking London at a time of crisis when there's precedent for doing it elsewhere especially when it should be in fuckin leeds or somewhere sensible

In extra fash, you're not supposed to take pictures. but MPs have been.





it starts in Portcullis house which is over Westminster Bridge Road then presumably through the tunnel under the road

[steveh]

Voting to stand in a queue for 45 minutes for every single vote and when they already have a massive majority is just what you'd expect of them by now.

[Fambo Number Mive]

I think moving Parliament to somewhere just north of Birmingham would be a good idea.

MPs have voted against allowing people to vote remotely by 242 to 185. That shows the contempt that 242 of them have for those who have to shield or don't live in the Home Counties.

[jobotic]

I think moving Parliament to somewhere just north of Birmingham would be a good idea.

MPs have voted against allowing people to vote remotely by 242 to 185. That shows the contempt that 242 of them have for those who have to shield or don't live in the Home Counties.

Exactly, and that is people who are their fellow MPs. Imagine what they think about the rest of us.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Many of the MPs worst affected by moving to in-person voting won't be able to vote on whether remote voting should be ended as the vote is in person. It's like something out of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

BBC seem more interesting in the Speaker telling off an MP for wearing denim shorts.

[Fambo Number Mive]

This is the message from the Tories - if you are shielding or live far from the House of Commons, you don't deserve a vote:

Over in the UK's House of Commons, MPs have just finished voting on the government's proposal for discontinuing the virtual Parliament.

And the government has won - 261 votes to 163.

Their proposal states that MPs should be physically in Parliament in order to participate.

However government minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has promised to bring forward a further proposal which would allow those who cannot attend due to age or medical reasons to be able to question the government remotely.

But they will still need to be in Parliament to vote.

Absolutely disgusting. Done to make things easier for their blond turd of a leader, to reduce the number of Opposition MPs who can vote and to send the message that people who are shielding don't matter.

Even pairing won't make that much of a different - MPs have breaching pairing before and it doesn't alter the message.

This government is the worst I can remember.

[idunnosomename]

haha i didnt realise they held the vote to discontinue the virtual parliament at the actual parliament people couldnt attend. you have to laugh dont you

[jobotic]

I'm a teaching assistant who has to go back to work but i have a child in a category that needs shielding.*


Get back to work. If you don't like it take unpaid leave. If you don't like that resign.


I'm going to write to my MP


Ha ha good luck with that.





*I'm not, but I'm aware of people who are.

[Alberon]

Fuck sake! I'm getting totally fed up that every time I turn on the news I see a story that could be a chapter heading in a book called 'The Decline and Fall of the Western Empire'.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Your union is going to break up over this.

[olliebean]

Already off the front page of BBC News. Can't see any particularly prominent coverage of it elsewhere. This is going to slip by without most people even realising it's happened, isn't it?

[idunnosomename]

it's incredible no one gives a shit about this after we all were "glued to PMQs like a game of thrones boxset" over brexit

i dont even know if my MP was there, fucking chancer cunt

[Fambo Number Mive]

Aren't these changes discrimination in the workplace and therefore illegal? Or will they have scrapped anti-discrimination laws by the time any judicial review comes to court?

Also, imagine scenes like this every time there is a vote in the House of Commons: https://twitter.com/tobyperkinsmp/status/1267837598308929536
https://twitter.com/BenPBradshaw/status/1267830447494422530

Does the Speaker have no power when it comes to votes regarding how the House of Commons operates? I can't stand Bercow but if he was Speaker he would have spoken out. Hoyle is more interested in the dress code.

[idunnosomename]

im amazed how much control the LEADER has over this and also how little anybody who used to be banging on about brexit cares

edit put speaker at first because i am drunk and very cross

[finnquark]

Full on banana republic. Exactly the sort of shit that JRM would no doubt  have spent his formative years laughing at, should some dreadful 'colonials' pull this sort of stunt.

[idunnosomename]

I still reckon JRM didn't want to go into politics. because he's a lazy cunt. but his dad was determined to parachute him somewhere. and I do wonder to what degree he's responsible for the nonsense today. he was always saying six feet instead of 2 m. to some degree it's clearly just a fucking act for him

[idunnosomename]

Politically incompetent cunts cant really be anything other than fascists

https://twitter.com/johnestevens/status/1267808798707605504?s=19

When tradition and "good manners" trump human rights. Well. What else can you call it