The people’s will

‘Parliamentary sovereignty’ was the catchphrase the Brexiteers swung like the sword of Damocles during the referendum.

The Enlightenment liberal philosophers of democracy saw parliamentary sovereignty as a bulwark against the overriding power of the executive. Lord Acton said: ‘All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

The Westminster sex scandal and tax avoidance aregoodexamplesofthepress and Parliament finally trying to shine a light in dark corners, to stop abuse of power.

The failure to attend to these in the past shows how little we really valued democracy.

Brexiteers who persist in snipping at Theresa May or who demand that Brexit outcome studies be kept from parliamentary scrutiny are creating a situation where the timetested concept of parliamentary sovereignty is superseded by the concept of the ‘people’s will’. This concept was last used by the bloodthirsty revolutionaries of the French Revolution. I thought this country had learned some lessons from history. £800m spending promises and £450m to fund the three per cent public sector pay rise the Greens demand.

And that’s before the £400m promised for child care and £400m to set up the new benefits agency.

It was sickening to watch her so blatantly duck, weave and refuse to answer, and scandalous that Presiding Officer Ken Mcintosh, the person charged with ensuring that the discourse and debate is open and informative, did not once intervene and insist the Sturgeon actually answered the question and if she wasn’t prepared to do so, to sit down.

What hope do opposition speakers have of getting their ever more inventive questions swatted aside while this nice, ineffective, timid man is in charge of proceedings? ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven