andrewducker | Election Time Again!

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The government has grown fed up with having a wafer-thin majority, which is meaning that they are dependent on the...less compliant members of the party to pass things. And so we get to have an election.

Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act the government can't just call an election.

So, May needs to either:
1) No Confidence herself. And then wait 14 days. Easy to do, even if it looks a bit silly.
2) Get Labour to go along with the snap election. Which they'd be stupid to do, but will probably do so anyway, considering recent behaviour.
2) Repeal the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. Would probably take a while, particularly if the Lords decide to bounce it around.

I wonder which one she'll go for. By what's been said so far, it looks like (2), but it's hard to tell.

Crossposts: http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/3569705.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

calimac

"without division" means by general consent, without objection. What that means is that, if for some reason it's obvious that the entire membership agrees there should be an election, they don't have to go through the formality of voting for it. Motions (usually insignificant ones) passed "without objection" by a simple announcement from the chair are very common in the US Congress, but I'm not sure if or how often that procedure is used in Parliament.

From:

matgb

It happens, but not often: when you watch them forming for a division there's first a spoken vote, "ayes" vs "nays" or "content" vs "not content" depending on details, if there are any nays or not contents the Speaker shouts "Clear the lobbies" and then they all go and walk down one of two corridors.

I don't pay enough attention to know how often stuff's passed without contest, but I've been there when it has been: this is especially likely in amendments to Bills that're uncontroversial.