Is Britain’s political system broken?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There is little or no consensus in Westminster about what kind of Brexit, if any, MPs want. The government's plan was defeated by a whopping 232 votes. And Labour's vote of confidence in the government was then defeated.
Brexit has stretched the British parliamentary system to its limits. David Aaronovitch and guests examine Britain's constitutional crisis and ask if the current political system is irretrievably broken.
GUESTS Katy Balls - Deputy Political Editor of The Spectator Sam McBride - Political Editor of The Belfast Newsletter Alison Young - Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge Robert Hazell - Professor of Government and the Constitution at University College, London
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:07.7 | Step inside and find out what you need to know about the issues that matter from people who really understand what they're talking about. |
| 0:15.2 | You can subscribe to the podcast via BBC Sounds and if it works for you, especially if it doesn't and you know how maybe it could, |
| 0:21.8 | tell us what you think by writing a review or rating us on your podcast provider. |
| 0:26.6 | Our question today, has Brexit broken the British political system? |
| 0:32.0 | And if you enjoy this podcast, you might enjoy other editions of the briefing room, |
| 0:35.7 | which are all available on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:46.3 | This, what we've seen in Parliament in the last few weeks, isn't supposed to happen. |
| 0:51.9 | When Prime Ministers lose critical votes on great issues, they tend to resign |
| 0:56.5 | or are replaced, and someone else presents a new policy, or they lose a vote of confidence in the |
| 1:02.3 | government, in which case there'll probably be an election which creates a new parliament. |
| 1:07.8 | Not this time, and as things stand, there are 71 days to go till we leave the EU |
| 1:12.7 | and there is no obvious way out of the political impasse. An outsider looking in might conclude |
| 1:19.2 | that Brexit has broken our system. Would the outsider be right? Step into the briefing |
| 1:25.9 | room and let's find out. |
| 1:39.9 | First, let's remind ourselves of the key events of the week. Serena Tarling has put together a summary for us. |
| 1:44.8 | This was never going to be an easy week for Theresa May. |
| 1:47.9 | Her final reckoning with Parliament on her withdrawal deal was supposed to happen before |
| 1:51.6 | Christmas. Fearing a big defeat, she delayed it, but by this week she couldn't put it off |
| 1:56.6 | any longer. |
| 1:58.6 | Early on Monday, Environment Secretary Michael Gove took to the airwaves to spell out |
... |
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