Parliamentary sovereignty is indeed DEAD!

As this blog has long and repeatedly been maintaining Sovereignty is indivisible and does not now exist in Britain. An article on the topic may be read from eGovmonitor , linked here, it concludes as follows: The Lisbon Treaty debate has highlighted a gaping hole in the UK constitution. The Labour government tacitly accept that Parliamentary sovereignty is no longer a useful concept - that's why they lined up to vote down Bill Cash's amendment. The Conservatives know it too - they have been insisting for years now that EU treaties should be ratified by referendums. Yet it seems to suit both their purposes to pay lip service to the idea that our democracy is protected by a supremely powerful Parliament. It is time we shook them out of their complacency.

Parliamentary Supremacy

The Main Business of the House of Commons today will be on the EU Lisbon Treaty I quote the critically important motion herewith:

3 EUROPEAN UNION (AMENDMENT) BILL: Third Reading (12th allotted day). (Queen’s Consent to be signified.) [Up to six hours]

Mr William Cash Mr John Redwood Mr Iain Duncan Smith Mr David Heathcoat-Amory Mr Michael Ancram Mr Peter Lilley

Mr Philip Hollobone Mr James Gray Mr Nigel Evans Mr Douglas Carswell Sir Nicholas Winterton Ann Winterton Mr Bernard Jenkin Mr John Whittingdale Sir Peter Tapsell Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger Mrs Nadine Dorries Mr Brian Binley Mr Adam Holloway Angela Browning

That this House declines to give a Third Reading to the European Union (Amendment) Bill because it does not protect the Parliament of the United Kingdom itself or its enactments from judicial rulings of the European Court of Justice and of the Courts of the United Kingdom.

Proceedings on Third Reading shall, so far as not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion six hours after commencement (Order of 28th January).

The Bill Cash Amendment gains attention

The disgraceful voting by Tory MPs on the last amendment of the day last Wednesday is slowly getting limited media coverage. On an apparently free vote, on which the Conservative front bench team abstained, 380 MPs, all of whom had made an oath of allegience before taking their seats, voted away parliamentary supremacy. Only 48 voted for the amendment their names are listed on my post of 5th March. A letter on the shameful vote was published in The Scotsman, linked here, and the BBC's influential Nick Robinson and now Matthew Parris in The Times have referenced a site where the matter is discussed, www.revolts.co.uk, linked here.