To be embarrassed by our politicians?

[domineastronomy]

What an absolute shambles in the Commons this evening.
Voting on Gaza was secondary to pathetic game playing and point scoring.

A growing list of 'no confidence ' votes from SNP and Tories.
Don't think the Speaker will survive this.

Being embarrassed by our politicians has been my default position for most of the past decade but I felt quite repulsed today. People dying and a humanitarian disaster unfolding, yet to them it's just a parlour game of semantics and procedure.

There was so much aggressive shouting that most of them didn't notice that voting was taking place. Shocking scenes.

Except that there are major divisions in the Tory party on this issue too. And part of the reason that the whole thing fell apart is that the Tories couldn’t get their MPs to either vote down the labour amendment or get the government amendment voted through. So they pulled it and tried various tactics to get the whole SNP motion and Labour amendment thrown out.

virtually every party could and perhaps should have done things differently. Including the speaker. But what Hoyle did was unusual but not unprecedented. It could have ended differently if the parties had reacted to it differently rather than politicking.

Don’t come at me but how can uk politicians decide to call a ceasefire in another country? I’m obviously missing something here.

They can’t. And as an opposition day motion the government aren’t legally bound by it.

It’s more about the British Parliament letting its will be known. Or not as it turned out.

It's to call for a ceasefire, rather than to call a ceasefire directly. So more like a formal call from one government to another to stop what they are doing than being able to enforce it.

What would the various motions actually achieve in realistic terms, if one was agreed?

Genuine question. Then what? Hamas and Isreal say "oh UK government has agreed there should be a complete ceasefire, so let's all put ours guns down"?

I'm clearly missing something, because what will it DO? Does it do something tangible?

It's not just you, I've just asked a similar question.

I'm honestly confused by all the fighting for or against motions which as far as I understand isn't going to make any actual difference to the situation.

That's my frustration too Fangisnotacoward, as a symbol or statement it's powerful but carries no true weight or consequence as far as I can tell. Would love to be corrected if that isn't the case though

How is it an important vote?

It's entirely meaningless. Hamas / Israel won't be watching and thinking "oh shit yeah, better return the hostages and stop bombing, the SNP said so"

No, you’re not missing anything. Nobody in either Israel or Gaza gives a toss what the British parliament says about anything. It’s all just pointless, empty posturing.

However they vote will make absolutely no difference to the situation on the ground. I don’t think it symbolises anything. It’s performative. The only country in a position to realistically influence events is the US.

If it's meaningless why the duck arr they wasting time over it when it should be time spent on local issues

🙄

@Spectre8 well quite. Because of the make up of the Labour Party / wanting to win votes / being scared of pro Palestinian supporters smashing up their offices or family homes

Good question. Don’t expect any MPs to answer it, though.

Fiddling while Rome burns. There’s a whole country deep in the shit here and they’re pissing about playing student politics.

Yes and even then only just

WTF on the whole thing and the speaker bending to Labour

Because it’s an opposition day where opposition parties (today SNP) where they can raise issues that the government are ignoring.

TM’s government didn’t even bother to show up for them exactly to avoid this sort of shit show I’d guess. Although she created quite enough issues with her own votes.

Exactly

Thank you @GreyBlackLove for trying to explain to us.

Agree

Very well put

It's been a long time since any prominent politician has shown real leadership or even any maturity.

This country wouldn't be in such a shambles if we hadn't had the Tories for the last 14 years.

It won't change minds in Hamas or the Israeli govt.