86
Parliament has already voted on Article 50 and Article 50 has already been invoked. If nothing else happens between now and March 29th, EU membership ends for the UK. That was the case whether this vote took place or not. So that's the simplest answer with what is known to factually and legally be in place at this time. Anything else borders on wild ...
69
The Parliament doesn't have a single opinion. It probably has 650 different opinions (perhaps more!).
Individual members may be hoping to achieve different things by an extension:
Strong remainers, such as Jo Swinson, are hoping that the UK will eventually have to retract its article 50 request, and remain in the EU. Requesting another extension is the ...
62
The New Statesman sums it up fairly succinctly
Sinn Féin is an Irish republican political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Its central aim is for a united Ireland. It opposes Westminster’s jurisdiction in Northern Ireland, and its oath to the Queen, so its MPs abstain from sitting in parliament.
In order to sit and vote ...
61
Because the Fixed Term Parliaments Act law says so:
if the motion is passed on a division, the number of members who vote in favour of the motion is a number equal to or greater than two thirds of the number of seats in the House (including vacant seats).
It's not about who votes and who doesn't, it's a legal requirement that there is a minimum threshold ...
58
A single MP can't block a law from being passed; however, he can block a law being passed without debate. The Bill is a Private Members Bill, and there is always very limited time available to debate them, so although formally Bills that are objected to are put on the list to be debated later, in practice that rarely happens (except for a few at the top of ...
53
One is an expected form of power transfer, the other is not.
In a parliamentary democracy, each representative has a mandate from their constituents, and only in aggregate can they form a government. If that government can't command a majority in the parliament, they basically can't govern, but someone else might be able to. Depending on the exact ...
51
Very good question and I am surprised that I as German needed to dig deeper into the stuff than anticipated. I tried to consult the German Wikipedia and the normal Google results, but got essentially nothing at first. I suppose it was self-evident schoolboy knowledge at their time and they did not bother to remark the function for following generations.
...
49
That is because there is a likelihood that the opposition party will gain power should the government be defeated in the confidence vote.
According to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the government has 14 days to try to form a new government or an early election will have to be called. The new government formed will also be subjected to a confidence ...
48
No.
I suggest the best source for this is probably the ruling of the Supreme Court itself. I'd encourage you to read it in full - it's not long and surprisingly readable.
The legal argument the Court made starts by establishing that courts have the right to limit the use of the Royal Prerogative (for example, see paragraph 32). It further establishes ...
48
In the UK, two fingers is an insult much like the middle finger in the USA. Done in a palm-out orientation it is the victory sign, as done by Winston Churchill. The other way around, palm inwards (knuckles out) it is just like the middle finger.
46
Doesn't this effectively end Johnson's short stint as Prime Minister?
Only if he loses, which is not a foregone conclusion. And even then, he doesn't leave office until a replacement is ready to enter: if it's a hung parliament, he would keep the office during coalition negotiations unless he chose to resign it.
Note that until recently (the Fixed Term ...
44
TL;DR
It is what is known as an Open Question. By using such a a vague question as the opening strike the asker is then able to follow up with a Supplementary Question, unknown to the Prime Minister, about any aspect of her/his political business leaving the Prime Minister open to an unprepared response.
The question is not asked once, but asked by every ...
44
The planned size of the Bundestag is 598 members: One directly elected member from each of the 299 electoral districts plus equally many members chosen from party lists in order to achieve a total allocation of seats that is proportional to the party votes (Zweitstimmen). As a simplified example, assume that party X got 10% of the party votes and that their ...
43
Without contradicting the already existing answers(specially about making each party position and reasons known to the public), I would point that:
Not all parliaments are bipartisan. Different parties can align differently for different laws. Even parties within a coalition government can vote separately on some issues1.
As dsollen comments, in some ...
43
From Parliament's website.
Four tellers are required for a division to take place: two representing those voting for the motion and two representing those voting against. Two tellers - one from each side - are present in each division lobby to ensure a fair count. The result is then reported back to the occupant of the Chair, or the Woolsack, in the ...
41
In the UK constitutional system, the Queen is not above the judiciary—she is the judiciary. As Wikipedia notes:
The sovereign is deemed the "fount of justice"; although the sovereign does not personally rule in judicial cases, judicial functions are performed in his or her name. For instance, prosecutions are brought on the monarch's behalf, and courts ...
40
Probably not.
Article 10 of the Treaty of the European Union states that:
Member States are represented in the European Council by their Heads of State or Government
It follows, therefore, that any notification made to the European Council must come from either the relevant country's Head of State or Head of Government. In the case of the United ...
39
If you follow the evening votes on any live stream, you'll notice that Bercow has the voting lobbies locked 8 minutes after putting the question.
Here's an excellent outline of how the UK parliament's division vote process works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_the_assembly#United_Kingdom
In the House of Commons, the Speaker says "The Question ...
38
Those are MPs who presumably can't find space to be seated on the (government in this case, since I recognise Iain Duncan Smith and Jeremy Hunt) benches. Over the years the number of constituencies in the UK has grown to 650, but the Victorian era Palace of Westminster debating chamber only has seating space for something like four hundred. In most cases ...
37
No, it does not. Under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act, 2018, the UK will still leave the EU on 29 March at 23:00 GMT. Only a further Act of Parliament to amend it will change this, and as of this writing, there is currently no Bill active in the Commons to do this.
37
Not yet. Because Sinn Fein hold 7 seats, but they refuse to take their seats in the House of Commons. By tradition, the Speaker of the house doesn't vote.So in practice there are 642 votes in the Commons. That means that 322 votes are needed for a working majority in practice, which the government still has (with the DUP's support).
At the time of writing ...
36
It is when two members from opposite parties agree not to vote when the other is absent.
pairing is an informal arrangement between the government and opposition parties whereby a member of a Legislative body agrees or is designated by the party whip to be absent from the chamber or abstain from voting while a member of the other party needs to be absent ...
33
Impeachment is a prosecution process; it only applies for gross misconduct, and the threshold for its success is really high. The PM can retire with only moderate shame after losing a vote of no confidence, but an president who is impeached and convicted ought to go to jail.
A vote of no confidence, on the other hand, simply indicates that the government is ...
32
The mace is a symbol of the Queen's Authority. Its presence in the House of Commons signifies that the House has the Queen's authority to pass laws, etc.
It is not unknown for an MP to make some kind of protest by grabbing it, but they always seem to look a bit foolish as a result, and it never accomplishes anything except for a bit of light-relief in the ...
32
The United Kingdom has 3 legal jurisdictions: England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
Citizens are entitled to bring cases in their own jurisdiction, or any other by mutual agreement (particularly for civil cases). In fact, independent cases are being heard in all 3 jurisdictions.
There is a single UK-wide Supreme Court which acts as the final ...
29
The major difference between these two systems is that in a Presidential system, the executive leader, the President, is directly voted upon by the people (Or via a body elected specifically for the purpose of electing the president, and no other purpose), and the executive leader of the Parliamentary system, the Prime Minister, is elected from the ...
28
Calling a general election dissolves Parliament, which is currently giving Johnson grief. However, he remains Prime Minister, with the executive power of that office, until a new Prime Minister is appointed after the election. He may see this as a way to deliver a No Deal Brexit.
There also appears to be the possibility (raised in other questions) that as ...
27
Two things have to be approved by the UK parliament - the Withdrawal Agreement and the accompanying Political Declaration. Many of these potential changes would be to the contents of the political declaration, a document detailing the intentions for the coming negotiations.
There is also a more political motivation, in that many MPs see these votes as a ...
27
While individual positions within all the parties are muddled, each party's position is reasonably clear.
Conservatives: Out on 31st October, Deal or No Deal, the article linked also says they will follow the law as per the Benn Act and ask for an extension. This is obviously contradictory.
Labour: Extension to get a general election, renegotiate and then ...
26
Queen's prerogative powers
The Queen has the right to authorise the forming of a new government and the appointment of a Prime Minister. So, theoretically, she can and has the power to say 'no' to the request.
The Queen only has the power to authorise the formation of a new government and appoint a new Prime Minister. There aren't any special powers in the ...
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