Meeting of the Parliament 29 November 2022
Here we are, again. Frustratingly, we are stuck in yet another debate about process.
The UK Conservative Government is being cavalier, but I cannot help but think that it has generated this debate because it simply cannot find any real Brexit freedoms. Was the sunset clause created to generate some drama around the old Brexit debate, because there is not much else to shout about? Is the UK Government kicking up some dust to hide the folly of Brexit? The bill is the baby of Jacob Rees-Mogg: what more evidence do we need?
The Scottish National Party loves nothing more than a debate about Westminster process, especially when it gives the SNP yet another chance to be affronted by whatever the sleight is this week. However, this debate is even more processy than I first thought: it is now a debate on process in a debate about process. There is no doubt that the Scottish Government has, in its eagerness to complain about the UK Government, undermined the committee process of the very Parliament that it claims to cherish.
Despite all the process, there is still a matter of substance at the heart of the debate—I think. The UK Government is being cavalier, even if we do not know exactly what it is being cavalier with or who will suffer. However, neither does the UK Government know what it is being cavalier about. That is the problem—it is driving in the pitch-dark.
We can do without this situation. Businesses, charities and other organisations have enough on their plates without yet more Government-induced uncertainty and potential chaos.