He has put forward a policy that does not command a majority in the House of Commons, so he has found that he can't get it through. This ought to happen more often.
If the Conservatives were better at politics, they would have announced they would vote for the cuts, deepening the split in the Labour Party if Starmer went ahead with them.
But Kemi Badenoch made her party's support conditional upon things Starmer was never going to agree to, so it looks as though he will back down.
Watching developments in the United States, where there appears to be no check on what a rogue president can do, has made me appreciate the virtues of a parliamentary system.
Boris Johnson was bundled out of power by a Commons with a safe Conservative majority when his behaviour became unconscionable, and then the ludicrous Liz Truss followed him after only 49 days later.
We Liberals are happiest when we point out the faults of the British parliament, but we ought to remember its virtues too.
Congress could put a brake on Trump if it wanted, but the Republicans are now a cult following of his. If the midterms go ahead, he will lose the House and possibly the Senate, but he might have abolished democracy by then. SCOTUS are no defence
ReplyDeleteIt is actually quite difficult to ignore the constitution and SCOTUS may have a majority of conservative members but I'm not at all sure they would ignore blatant attempts to ride roughshod over it. So, I expect the midterms to go ahead but that we will see spurious challenges to the results if as expected Republicans do badly. If by a miracle Democrats end up controlling the house and the senate, then we will see congressional challenges to Trump.
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