Rude health

An unexpected outcome of the tortuous process of Brexit negotiations has been the enhancement of Britain’s reputation as a parliamentary democracy. For many years, it has seemed as if political debate was draining away to the TV and radio studios, or even to social media — with MPs reduced to simply rubber-stamping decisions which have already been made elsewhere. This week, the Commons reasserted its authority in the most dramatic way imaginable, inflicting the largest ever government defeat on a substantive motion. The rejection of the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal is a humiliation on a scale which confounded the government’s attempts at expectation-management.

To Mrs May’s credit, she immediately conceded that MPs must decide what happens next. As she told the House, the defeat tells us what MPs do not want but nothing about what they would, collectively, find acceptable. They have already given approval for Britain to leave without a deal on 29 March — this happened when Article 50 was invoked — so they must now come up with something else. If they want a deal, they must make it clear to the EU what sort of deal they would approve. If the EU stonewalls parliament in the way it has stonewalled Mrs May, and refuses to reopen negotiations, then MPs must decide between two options: to leave with no deal or to rescind Article 50 and stay in the EU — which would require the support of the electorate in a second referendum.

There will be more dramatic evenings in the Commons before the matter is settled.  That should be seen as a positive development: it shows the rude health of our parliamentary democracy in contrast to the stale oligarchy of the EU. Jean-Claude Juncker does not have to fear losing a vote in the way Theresa May did on Tuesday.