Anthony Barnett (London, OK): The Guardian's veteran political correspondent Michael White cultivates a knowing, seen it all, it won't change, nor-should-it-if-it-comes-to-that, attitude that is only bearable because he works fairly hard. Finally, after thirty years, his faith in the system may have been rocked. In today's political briefing he reports that Parliament's Lisbon debate "rings hollow",
What is shocking to the dwindling band of MPs who believe that parliamentary procedures are there to protect minority views is that the detailed Commons committee stage of the bill - five of the promised 12 days taken so far - is all but meaningless. Why? Clever Geoff Hoon, Labour chief whip, has persuaded MPs to vote to overrule their own standing orders. Instead of line-by-line debate which explores changes to foreign policy procedures, EU cooperation on crime or energy, at least half of each day is devoted to a "themed" discussion, with debate on specific amendments tacked on later.
Does procedure matter? No one would be allowed to change the rules before a football match or criminal trial. Yet younger MPs on both sides barely grasp what powers they have given to Whitehall - let alone to Brussels.
Do I detect that MW himself is a little "shocked"? Is he coming round to the view not only that procedures matter in a democracy but that in Britain the rules are unsafe in the hands that control them? If so the edifice is finally cracking.
