General Chat

Two weeks ago the Prime Minister David Cameron, when replying to an accusation that he was trying to delay the vote, he had promised on the European Arrest Warrant, until after the Rochester and Strood by-election, said in the House of Commons - there will be a vote on it, we are going to have a vote and we are going to have it before the Rochester by-election.

Tthe Home Secretary Theresa May wrote a letter to Yvette Cooper the Shadow Home Secretary, in it she said - let me be absolutely clear, Monday’s debate and vote in the House of Commons will be a debate and vote on the whole package of 35 measures – including the arrest warrant.

The travesty of this whole sorry debacle is, that had a vote been allowed on the specific issue of the European Arrest Warrant, the government would probably have won the vote - albeit some of their backbenchers would have abstained or voted against it.

By not allowing a vote on the specific issue of the European Arrest Warrant, the House of Commons descended into chaos, the government were accused of, to quote a few, a travesty of our parliamentary proceedings; completely unbelievable; executive arrogance; outrageous abuse of parliamentary procedures; fundamentally underhand tactics; proposals were a joke, a completed shambles; contemptuous; tainted with chicanery; tyranny; and procedural absurdity.

To crown it all we had the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other senior politicians, leap in their ministerial cars still in their penguin suits and rush to the House of Commons to take part in the vote - after being forced to leave the Lord Mayor of the City of London's annual banquet.

I have followed debates in the House of Commons, for more years than I care to remember, in recent times, not only can I not recall a Speaker accuse a government of trying to slip things through through some sort of artifice - I cannot recall such spectacle as I witnessed yesterday.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave - when first we practice to deceive ;-)

'The most dangerous liars are those who think they are telling the truth'.

I don't know who said this but it could possibly apply to Mrs May.

We normally expect chaos and uproar during Prime Ministers Questions, however the Home Secretary has caused uproar in the chamber today, resulting in a scathing attack on her by the Speaker - for trying to pull a fast one.

Commons Speaker John Bercow has attacked the government's handling of the debate over the European Arrest Warrant, saying the public would be "contemptuous" of the process.

Mr Bercow said there would be no vote on the UK's membership of the warrant, saying this had caused "considerable irritation" among MPs.

Home Secretary Theresa May had promised a vote on the "package" of EU justice measures, including the warrant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29983651

I have never hidden my opinions on Theresa May's judgement, and after this latest fiasco I won't hide my opinion now - this Home Secretary should go and go now!