Solving Brexit through a ‘Westminster Committee’?

We cannot hope to solve the Brexit impasse through the theatre of the floor of the House of Commons.

Within such a public arena, MP’s may feel they have little or no freedom to change their minds even when in others circumstances they may be minded to do so; when they might find in the arguments or evidence presented plentiful reason to do so.

This Brexit issue needs to retreat to the Committee Rooms where different rules of engagement apply and MP’s are more used to working with one another and addressing subjects across party lines.  Where also everyone can be in the position of having a free vote with no whipping and with confidentiality as to who has decided in favour of what where this is also important for collegiate responsibility.

The committee members themselves – a group of MP’s selected by their colleagues as the most likely to be able to meet in the way anticipated and arrive at a decision for everyone else – will then spend however long it takes to hear all the evidence, to hear from the experts, to interview witnesses from across the spectrum of expertise with depth as well as breadth and having done so strive to arrive at a consensus.

This ‘consensus’ will almost certainly be more than a compromise but less than full agreement and follows a process already known, exercised and well developed in other domains.  Such a process will require facilitation however and the MP’s in question will need to decide how this facilitation is to be provided: with self facilitation or expertise brought in.

The time needed for this process to occur has now effectively been granted by the EU and we should get on with utilising this time in this way. All parties will be bound by the outcome and in return for this, the committee will publish a document detailing and describing what has taken place and the conclusion reached. This will be of such a nature and length that it can be accessible to all and readily understood by all.

How such an outcome is then endorsed by the whole country will be the subject of a further blog.