Assembly plan could break logjam

✒ AS far as Brexit is concerned, we seem to be stuck in a log jam of conflicting MPS’ motions with Theresa May caught in obsessional fixations about respecting the 2016 referendum and not sanctioning a second one.

I recently came across a startling proposition in one the weekly emails from The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown.

They suggest that Article 50 be postponed for a one year.

This is not to kick the can even further down the road, but to provide time for a People’s Assembly to consider Brexit and to make proposals.

An assembly such as this might consist of a hundred people, selected (but not elected) on the basis of a range of political viewpoints, age and gender.

Such assemblies have been used in Canada, Australia, California and some other states of the US – and of course in Scandinavian countries.

They lend themselves to rational, objective debate for topics where a two-party quarrel may get nowhere.

Nearer to home, Ireland is now on its third or fourth National Assembly.

The first was devoted to possible changes in the laws concerning abortion.

Subsequent legislation in the national parliament is said to have benefited from the Assembly’s work.

This note is being sent to you on Tuesday evening.

This morning two national papers, the Telegraph and the i, headlined Amber Rudd’s warning of mass resignations if a No Deal remains of the table while on Monday morning some folk in Westminster wondered if a General Election might help. John Ricketts Lynworth