Good old Ken Clarke

I woke up this morning to read an article about Kenneth Clarke, who was the only Tory to vote against the Brexit bill in Parliament. He's a good man. A legend, in fact, who also happens to have a fairly good track record when it comes to voting on LGBT issues. He's one of the only MPs who actually remembers Enoch Powell and the damage done by his River of Blood speech, so when he references that dark period of British history in relation to Brexit, we'd be fools not to listen. But fools we are...

What struck me most about what he was saying is quite how undemocratic this whole process has been. The 16 million people who voted to remain no longer have a voice in Parliament. How can this be? Only 100 or so MPs are actually arguing our corner. Theresa May's constituents voted to remain. Jeremy Corbyn's similarly voted to remain. And yet there they are, skipping hand-in-hand through the Brexit channel. Jeremy Corbyn's decision to place the whip on his MPs and not make the vote a matter of conscience further convinces me that he will be the death of the Labour Party. A constituency MP's role is to represent his constituents, not to do what he thinks he needs to do to remain in power. Furthermore an MP's duty is to protect the common man from making stupid mistakes born out of ignorance. An opposition party's role is to provide opposition to the government. Because Labour no longer seem to want to provide opposition, I no longer have a party I can vote for, which is an almost astonishing form of disenfranchisement.

I helped out on another quiz this evening, which I was thrilled to discover was taking place in Highgate Village. Not since I lived in the flat above the flat I worked in with Shaheen Baig have I ever had such a blissfully short commute to work!