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The House of Commons was scheduled to host a debate on whether or not Britain should opt back into 35 of 133 criminal justice powers reclaimed from Brussels including, crucially, the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). But as that debate got under way, it became clear that the motion related only to 10 of the 35 measures.&Photo: Getty Images
If the polls tell us anything, it is that voters are profoundly disenchanted with the political class, and feel that their concerns are not shared – or even understood – by their elected representatives. Ordinary people are, many feel, held in contempt by their leaders. For those voters, for all voters, the dispiriting spectacle that took place at Westminster last night will simply confirm their worst fears.
The House of Commons was scheduled to host a debate on whether or not Britain should opt back into 35 of 133 criminal justice powers reclaimed from Brussels including, crucially, the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). But as that debate got under way, it became clear that the motion related only to 10 of the 35 measures. The EAW was not among them. Suddenly, the principal issue at stake in the Chamber was whether the Government was trying to act in an underhand manner – slipping through a vote without addressing the central and most contentious issue.
The Speaker, John Bercow, seemed in little doubt. “There is not today to be a vote on the specific matter of membership of the European Arrest Warrant,” he told MPs. This was, he made clear, a surprise to him, and a “sorry saga” that amounted to “artifice” and compromised the integrity of the House. What followed was the deployment by Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, of highly unusual parliamentary procedure to delay the vote. Though this was eventually dismissed and the House proceeded to vote on the original motion, the technicalities and ramifications proved confusing even for hardened Westminster insiders. But what about the ordinary citizen?
For the Speaker made his most telling point when he addressed the expectations not of the political parties sitting on the green benches before him, but the wider public in the country beyond. They, he correctly suggested, were “frankly contemptuous ... of what is not straightforward dealing”. And what took place last night, whether it was simple muddle or downright sleight of hand, could not be described in any other terms.
The only victor of the evening’s events was elsewhere. Nigel Farage is undoubtedly a skilful political operator who has tapped into genuine popular concern about immigration and closer European integration. But sometimes he must wonder whether his supposed adversaries are secret Ukip supporters, given the open goals with which they present him. Last night was perhaps the most egregious so far, and will only help to convince many voters that it is now not Europe, or immigration, that matters most, but a lack of trust in the political system itself.
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