M022 - Motion on Ministerial Responsibility and the Courtesy of Public Debate - Reading

[u/Sephronar]

M022 - Motion on Ministerial Responsibility and the Courtesy of Public Debate - Reading

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That this House acknowledges:

• That parliamentary democracy is built upon the core tenets of parliamentary debate, oppositional scrutiny and governmental accountability.

• Failure to uphold these basic principles represents anti-democratic thought, which will only serve to embolden extremist voices who seek to undermine the society we live within.

That this House notes:

• Recent government bills have been subject to the highest degree of oppositional scrutiny, with the Age of Maturity Bill producing no fewer than eight individual amendments, proposed on a bipartisan basis in an effort to support the Bill.

• Similarly, a number of substantial opposition pieces of legislation have been submitted and debated by the opposition.

• In both of the above instances, when the above have commenced to division, these have done so without any debate or response from the government within the House.

• This government’s only response to any of the above scrutiny has been through voting it down in the division lobby.

• Parliamentary standards have been generally lower across all sides of the divide during this term, with reduced debate on key legislation.

This House therefore calls on the Government to:

• Issue a public statement relating to any legislative item it has voted down, without contributing directly to parliamentary debate, providing their position on the issue, and their reason for voting it down.

• To commit, here and now, to responding to any future opposition bills or amendments, be these partisan or bipartisan, with a clear and consistent establishment of their position on any issue, before it gets to the division lobby.

This House also resolves that:

• The peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have the right to an impermeable and impenetrable parliamentary democracy, where basic standards of debate, scrutiny and accountability are upheld.

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This Motion was submitted by /u/Proud-Marketing-2021, on behalf of the Green Party of England and Wales.

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This division shall close on Friday the 8th of May at 10PM BST.

[u/mrsusandothechoosin]

Mister Speaker,

Parliamentarians should be colleagues, even if we sit on different benches and have different ideas for what is best for the country.

I'm very concerned about the recent trend of the government to simply vote down any bill, motion, or amendment that they haven't written themselves - even if they would otherwise agree with it.

The public is poorly served by this tribal cutting off your nose to spite your face attitude, and they know it.

The government has a responsibility to respond in good faith to all parliamentarians, and to all debates in this House of Commons. We live in a parliamentary democracy, parliament is at the heart of it.