It's later than you think.Kevin Drum

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Why bother passing a law that requires a two-thirds majority to call a new parliamentary election when any future parliament can just pass a law (with a simple majority) negating the requirement and calling a new election whenever it wants?

That was today’s question for Brits, and the answer turns out to be: random politics. Back in 2011 the Conservative Party won an election but didn’t have a majority. They teamed up with the Liberal Democrats to form a government, but the Lib-Dems insisted on the two-thirds law as a condition of supporting the coalition. Why? Because they wanted a full five-year term. The new law prevented the prime minister from calling an election the first time the polls looked good and he thought he might be able to win a majority on his own.

In other words, it was always meant as a short-term solution to an immediate partisan problem, not a permanent change to the constitutional workings of the country. This is why no one cares much that Boris Johnson is bypassing it now with a new law passed by a simple majority.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate