By George Dark day for democracy
As you read this, I’m heading back to parliament to start another session in our capital city.
As I said last week, recess reminds me why I do this job — to represent the people of our great wee town and help make it the best it possibly can be.
I am looking forward to getting stuck into another year in Holyrood to look out for Scotland’s interests with my friends and colleagues.
However, I must admit that’s beginning to look like a harder task by the day the longer we stay on USS United Kingdom.
If we thought Boris Johnson and his leadership was bad before the recent turn of events, he certainly raised the stakes last week.
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the omnishambles that is the UK Government by now, but, for those who haven’t, make sure you’re sitting down before I continue.
Last week, the Prime Minister decided to prorogue the parliament — prorogue is just the official parliamentary word for suspend — just days before MPs are due to return from recess.
Now with Brexit on the horizon and still no more clarity about where we stand moving forward, this is, frankly, a diabolical move and a dark day for democracy.
As one of the leading voices of the Brexit campaign, it should’ve come as no shock that our new Prime Minister would be happy with a no deal regardless of the cost, but I did not expect him to pull this move.
Attempting to shut down parliament to force through a nodeal Brexit is an outrageous assault on our basic democratic principles and, by doing this, Boris Johnson is acting more like a dictator than a Prime Minister.
After facing backlash from voices across the UK Parliament and the political sphere in general, Mr Johnson has said it is “completely untrue” the government is attempting to squash MPs’ attempts to block a no-deal Brexit on October 31.
Instead, suspending parliament simply allows him to set out a fresh domestic agenda in a new Queen’s Speech, due to take place on October 14.
However, with mere weeks to go until we’re due to crash out of the European Union, this just seems like more lies from a prime minister who already can’t be trusted when it concerns Brexit.
Shutting down parliament to force through his agenda without allowing our elected MPs to have their say is a disgrace — and it’s shocking that this move is even allowed in the first place.
To put this into perspective, when the Scottish Government loses a vote in Holyrood, they take it on the chin and accept the verdict of our elected chamber.
Yet down in Westminster, the prime minister can simply order his stooges up to the Queen’s holiday home and declare parliament closed until further notice.
I don’t know about you, but I think this is certainly just more evidence to support Scotland becoming an independent nation.
It is bad enough we face being dragged out of the EU against our will, but now we must sit back while our Prime Minister takes the choice away from our elected MPs.
As things stand, the UK Parliament returns next week, but will only have days to try and prevent a kamikaze no deal Brexit before the dictatorial actions by Johnson and his clique are planned to take effect.
This is unacceptable and I hope we all see this move for what it really is — a prime minister showing he has absolutely no regard for Scotland, her people and the democratic will of a nation.