Sound and Fury ...

So parliament is sitting again.

Daniel Johnson wrote an piece on "The Article" yesterday,

"MPs are back in Westminster. But what will they actually do?"

On the basis of yesterday it seems to be a very good question.

Despite all the angry rhetoric from all sides no party actually tabled a motion of "No confidence" in the government.

A majority of MPs seem to be happy to hamstring the government and talk about how awful the Prime Minister is but not to actually try to remove him or agree to an election.

In my humble opinion this is actually making what these MPs say they want to avoid - a No-Deal Brexit - more likely rather than less. 

Every time MPs pile humiliation on the government while leaving it in place, they make the other 27 EU member states more likely to despair of ever getting a deal agreed with Britain which can pass through the UK parliament. 

If Britain does ask for an extension it would only take one of the other 27 governments to veto it and the effect of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will almost certainly mean in that situation that Britain leaves the EU with No Deal.

The only way to avoid a full-on constitutional crisis is if Boris comes back from the EU summit in mid October with a deal and parliament then works flat out to pass and implement it. This is also the best way to take a "No Deal" Brexit off the table and the only way to do so without justly infuriating millions of people by repudiating the expressed decision of the electorate, a decision which 85% of MPs were elected while promising to uphold.

I do not see that the antics of some of those MPs who say they want to avoid a no deal Brexit are helping towards that end.