MP's betraying their electorates
Posted: Sun 31 Mar 2019 10:17 am
As ever the following is just my own personal 'musing' nothing more.
There is out there a feeling / view / opinion / belief , pretty wide spread I would suggest , that MP's are not reflecting the views of their electorates or the majority view of their electorates and are just instead reflecting their own views. I think there is also a belief, again quite widely held I would suggest, that this 'not reflecting the views of their electorates' is the reason or main reason why we are where we are right now. A view that 'if only MPs would fairly represents the views of the majority of their electorates, then we would not be in this mess we are now and we would have left the EU'. I also think there is a view / feeling that such behaviour is being done or predominately by MPs who voted themselves voted remain but represent constituencies in which a majority voted leave.
On the off chance that anyone else is interested at trying to look at this 'issue' in any kind of balanced way outside of our own personal 'wants', this is what I will be trying to do in this post (and I will almost certainly fail but I am trying).
The first thing you have to decide is 'which electorate' do you think MP's have a duty to reflect the majority will of. Those of their constituents that voted them in and invested them with 'power' and the right to speak on their behalves or the 'electorate' of the UK as a whole. If you believe that an MP's duty is to reflect the will of the UK electorate as a whole, regardless of and without regard for the will of their constituents, then you can probably just ignore the rest of this post. If however you believe their duty is to reflect the will of the majority of their constituents, then I hope you will keep going.
One more 'disclaimer' before I go on. There is only 'hard data' on which way a given constituency voted in terms of the 2016 referendum for about 20% of constituencies. For the other 80% of constituencies there are only 'estimates'. I do think good hard work has been done by the likes of Dr Chris Hanretty to provide us with the 'best estimates possible' and that such estimates 'usable' but it should not be forgotten that for most constituencies these are 'estimates' and not 'hard fact'.
So I am going to pose a series of question in the hope of encouraging some though and maybe even debate. On the chance that any of these questions 'upset' or 'anger' anyone I would ask them to remember that is all they are, questions.
If as someone who voted leave you believe strongly and passionately that MP's from constituencies that had a majority who voted leave have a duty to only pursue actions that are compatible with leaving and that any time they do otherwise they are betraying their electorates, is that not also true for MP's from constituencies that vote remain have a duty to pursue actions that are compatible with remaining and that any time they do otherwise they are betraying their electorates ?
For anyone who is wondering, as I did when thinking about this, are there MPs from consistences where a majority voted to remain, whilst they themselves vote leave and who have pursued actions that are odds with the majority view of the electorates as expressed in the referendum but compatible with their own personal view, then the answer to that question is 'yes there are'. Some examples would include
Kate Hoey - voted leave. Her constituency, Vauxhall, 77.6% voted remain
Graham Brady - voted leave. His constituency, Altrincham and Sale West 61.4% voted remain
Peter Lillie - voted leave. His constituency, Hitchen and Harpenden 60.2% voted remain
Dominic Raab- voted leave. His constituency Esher and Walton 58.4% voted remain
John Redwood - voted leave. His constituency Wokingham 57.3% voted remain
Gisela Stuart - voted leave. Her constituency Birmingham Edgbaston 52.7% voted remain
- just as a note, we here now get to around the point that matches the referendum split nationwide (51.89% leave 48.11% remain) and the point that 'estimates' of how a constituency voted become increasingly 'uncertain' -
Liam Fox - voted leave. His constituency, North Somerset 52.4% voted remain
Chris Grayling - voted leave. His constituency, Epsom and Ewell 52.2% voted remain
David Davies - voted leave. His constituency, Monmouth 51.9% voted remain
(source for figure above https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/pro-b ... ituencies/ )
There is out there a feeling / view / opinion / belief , pretty wide spread I would suggest , that MP's are not reflecting the views of their electorates or the majority view of their electorates and are just instead reflecting their own views. I think there is also a belief, again quite widely held I would suggest, that this 'not reflecting the views of their electorates' is the reason or main reason why we are where we are right now. A view that 'if only MPs would fairly represents the views of the majority of their electorates, then we would not be in this mess we are now and we would have left the EU'. I also think there is a view / feeling that such behaviour is being done or predominately by MPs who voted themselves voted remain but represent constituencies in which a majority voted leave.
On the off chance that anyone else is interested at trying to look at this 'issue' in any kind of balanced way outside of our own personal 'wants', this is what I will be trying to do in this post (and I will almost certainly fail but I am trying).
The first thing you have to decide is 'which electorate' do you think MP's have a duty to reflect the majority will of. Those of their constituents that voted them in and invested them with 'power' and the right to speak on their behalves or the 'electorate' of the UK as a whole. If you believe that an MP's duty is to reflect the will of the UK electorate as a whole, regardless of and without regard for the will of their constituents, then you can probably just ignore the rest of this post. If however you believe their duty is to reflect the will of the majority of their constituents, then I hope you will keep going.
One more 'disclaimer' before I go on. There is only 'hard data' on which way a given constituency voted in terms of the 2016 referendum for about 20% of constituencies. For the other 80% of constituencies there are only 'estimates'. I do think good hard work has been done by the likes of Dr Chris Hanretty to provide us with the 'best estimates possible' and that such estimates 'usable' but it should not be forgotten that for most constituencies these are 'estimates' and not 'hard fact'.
So I am going to pose a series of question in the hope of encouraging some though and maybe even debate. On the chance that any of these questions 'upset' or 'anger' anyone I would ask them to remember that is all they are, questions.
If as someone who voted leave you believe strongly and passionately that MP's from constituencies that had a majority who voted leave have a duty to only pursue actions that are compatible with leaving and that any time they do otherwise they are betraying their electorates, is that not also true for MP's from constituencies that vote remain have a duty to pursue actions that are compatible with remaining and that any time they do otherwise they are betraying their electorates ?
For anyone who is wondering, as I did when thinking about this, are there MPs from consistences where a majority voted to remain, whilst they themselves vote leave and who have pursued actions that are odds with the majority view of the electorates as expressed in the referendum but compatible with their own personal view, then the answer to that question is 'yes there are'. Some examples would include
Kate Hoey - voted leave. Her constituency, Vauxhall, 77.6% voted remain
Graham Brady - voted leave. His constituency, Altrincham and Sale West 61.4% voted remain
Peter Lillie - voted leave. His constituency, Hitchen and Harpenden 60.2% voted remain
Dominic Raab- voted leave. His constituency Esher and Walton 58.4% voted remain
John Redwood - voted leave. His constituency Wokingham 57.3% voted remain
Gisela Stuart - voted leave. Her constituency Birmingham Edgbaston 52.7% voted remain
- just as a note, we here now get to around the point that matches the referendum split nationwide (51.89% leave 48.11% remain) and the point that 'estimates' of how a constituency voted become increasingly 'uncertain' -
Liam Fox - voted leave. His constituency, North Somerset 52.4% voted remain
Chris Grayling - voted leave. His constituency, Epsom and Ewell 52.2% voted remain
David Davies - voted leave. His constituency, Monmouth 51.9% voted remain
(source for figure above https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/pro-b ... ituencies/ )