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THE title of this newsletter speaks for itself when it comes to the events of the past week.
On Wednesday, the House of Commons finally, after more than four months, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. But how we all wish that key moment had been delivered with the simplicity it deserved.
Instead of unequivocally denouncing the atrocities taking place in the Middle East, the call for a ceasefire was not formal, not binding and convoluted to an extent that many journalists grappled with how to explain what had occurred without leaving the public dumbfounded.
On Wednesday, the SNP were ready for one of only three Opposition Days they get each year. It is an opportunity for the party to lead parliamentary business. For their moment in the spotlight, they chose to once again place pressure on Keir Starmer’s Labour and the Government to call for an immediate end to military activity in Gaza.
Three amendments had been put forward to this proposal, one from Labour, one from the Government and one from the LibDems. The Government’s, put simply, did not call for a ceasefire. Labour’s did, but did not accuse Israel of collective punishment of Palestinians – a key part of the SNP’s motion.
READ MORE: Fiona Bruce omits key SNP details in BBC Question Time debate on Gaza
It was fully expected, as is the norm on an Opposition Day, that only one amendment would be accepted and that would be the Government’s one, but not on Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s watch.
On accepting the Labour amendment as well as the Government one, he flicked the first domino to spark a chain of chaos that has now resulted in him fighting for his job.
It transpired that not only did Hoyle break with “long-established convention” – a key pillar of the UK's uncodified constitution – but he was advised of the consequences of doing this.
The main sticking point was that in allowing Labour’s amendment to be tabled, it left a very slim chance of the SNP’s original motion being voted on. In the end, it wasn’t voted on at all.
Amid this obscenely poor judgment call from Hoyle – who was a Labour MP before becoming Speaker - rumours began to swirl he had been coerced into the move by Starmer. This has been denied by both parties, but that has not quietened suspicions, with Alba’s Neale Hanvey reporting Starmer to the Privileges Committee.
Dozens of Tory and SNP MPs – the rarest of cocktails – have now signed a no confidence motion in Hoyle after Penny Mordaunt and Stephen Flynn made their anger inexplicably clear. Mordaunt even said she was “sympathetic” to the SNP taking Labour’s next Opposition Day off them, such was her fury at what had taken place.
Deputy Speaker Rosie Winterton – who was left to pick up the pieces of all of this at points during the afternoon – decided that Labour’s amendment was carried unopposed, but the Government does not have to adopt this as the vote was not formal.
Exhausted? Not surprising. Questions over Westminster’s archaic and illegible systems completely overshadowed a long-awaited statement of solidarity from the UK’s Parliament.
It was so embarrassing for Westminster that the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, described it as “British politics at its lowest”.
It is worth a reminder that amid this mess, more than 29,000 Palestinian lives have been lost in the past four months and this mindless destruction shows no signs of coming to an end – no thanks to Westminster.
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