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Elected British MPs are also unable to resign. To allow them to do so there is a "legal fiction" where they're appointed to an "office of profit". This disqual

Elected British MPs are also unable to resign. To allow them to do so there is a "legal fiction" where they're appointed to an "office of profit". This disqualifies them from being an MP and triggers a by-election. These are unpaid positions with titles like "Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resignation_from_the_House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resignation_from_the_House_of_...

pbhjpbhj 3y ago
I'd say 'MPs have a rather ridiculous manner of tendering their resignations'. Potatoe, potatoe. Unless someone can share an instance when an MP could not leave the House?
- NeoTar 3y ago
  Apparently not since the 1840’s: > The Chancellor may in theory deny an application, although the last time this happened was to Viscount Chelsea in 1842. In the debate over expelling the fugitive James Sadleir in 1856, the Government committed to refusing any potential application he would make. From the Wikipedia article referenced above.
- Robin_Message 3y ago
  Since only two (or maybe three, I'm not 100% sure) of these positions exist, a mass resignation would be delayed by having to cycle people through the appointment and release of these figurative roles. It also created a curious effect where a Sinn Fein MP (Gerry Adams), who like all Sinn Fein MPs never took his seat because he would not swear allegiance ot the crown, had to accept a crown job to resign, which David Cameron criticised him for (in rather poor form). And there is nothing aside form precedent preventing a capricious government from stopping MPs from resigning by refusing to make such an appointment. It's all fun and games having an unwritten messy constitution until a government exceeds its powers to e.g. prorogue parliament against its will and we have to wait months for a court to rule on it when a proper consitution would never have allowed such an act in the first place. An insurrection like January 6th would suceed in the UK because there is so much arcane bullshit where our constitution should be, we are solely dependent on the good will and character of the current government to run things as they are meant to be run.
  - tialaramex 3y ago
    > An insurrection like January 6th would suceed in the UK The US situation can't arise in the UK because they cut the three key roles up differently In the US the Figurehead and Executive Leader are one man (the US President in this case Donald Trump) in the UK the Figurehead is the Monarch (ie today King Charles) and the Executive Leader is the Prime Minister, who is also Legislative Leader (and historically both these jobs are sometimes done by women). Both countries bizarrely assign multiple jobs with different required skill sets to the same person, which would be understandable if they were tiny nations with a small population but they aren't. However which roles are split this way is crucially different. The problem on January 6th in the US is that the Executive Leader wants to destroy the Legislature. Yes his Secret Service persuades him not to accompany the insurrectionists, but they're doing what he told them to do. That can't happen in the UK because the Executive Leader is the leader of the Legislature. If the Legislature don't think he should be leader, they can get rid of him, and not via some "arcane bullshit" but with almost the simplest possible motion, "That This House Has No Confidence In His [or Her] Majesty's Government".
  - toyg 3y ago
    Adams never accepted anything - Cameron's admin unilaterally appointed him to the post, which is why Erskine May was subsequently changed to specify Maps are appointed to, rather than accepting, the paid job. "Call me Dave" was making stuff up, as he was wont to do.
  - pm215 3y ago
    It doesn't in practice delay things much even with a fairly large group resigning at once -- in 1985 15 Ulster Unionist MPs resigned on the same day, and this was done by cycling between the two offices and spreading the appointments out through the day. So it's silly, but not actually a problem, which is why nobody's bothered to try to tidy it up.
    - kitd 3y ago
      Seems ripe for automation in this day & age. 15 per day, pff! I'm sure with the right cloud services and a well-engineered state machine we could get it up to over a 100. Should be just about enough to handle Tory members as election day approaches...

pbhjpbhj 3y ago

I'd say 'MPs have a rather ridiculous manner of tendering their resignations'. Potatoe, potatoe. Unless someone can share an instance when an MP could not leave the House?

NeoTar 3y ago
Apparently not since the 1840’s: > The Chancellor may in theory deny an application, although the last time this happened was to Viscount Chelsea in 1842. In the debate over expelling the fugitive James Sadleir in 1856, the Government committed to refusing any potential application he would make. From the Wikipedia article referenced above.
Robin_Message 3y ago
Since only two (or maybe three, I'm not 100% sure) of these positions exist, a mass resignation would be delayed by having to cycle people through the appointment and release of these figurative roles. It also created a curious effect where a Sinn Fein MP (Gerry Adams), who like all Sinn Fein MPs never took his seat because he would not swear allegiance ot the crown, had to accept a crown job to resign, which David Cameron criticised him for (in rather poor form). And there is nothing aside form precedent preventing a capricious government from stopping MPs from resigning by refusing to make such an appointment. It's all fun and games having an unwritten messy constitution until a government exceeds its powers to e.g. prorogue parliament against its will and we have to wait months for a court to rule on it when a proper consitution would never have allowed such an act in the first place. An insurrection like January 6th would suceed in the UK because there is so much arcane bullshit where our constitution should be, we are solely dependent on the good will and character of the current government to run things as they are meant to be run.
- tialaramex 3y ago
  > An insurrection like January 6th would suceed in the UK The US situation can't arise in the UK because they cut the three key roles up differently In the US the Figurehead and Executive Leader are one man (the US President in this case Donald Trump) in the UK the Figurehead is the Monarch (ie today King Charles) and the Executive Leader is the Prime Minister, who is also Legislative Leader (and historically both these jobs are sometimes done by women). Both countries bizarrely assign multiple jobs with different required skill sets to the same person, which would be understandable if they were tiny nations with a small population but they aren't. However which roles are split this way is crucially different. The problem on January 6th in the US is that the Executive Leader wants to destroy the Legislature. Yes his Secret Service persuades him not to accompany the insurrectionists, but they're doing what he told them to do. That can't happen in the UK because the Executive Leader is the leader of the Legislature. If the Legislature don't think he should be leader, they can get rid of him, and not via some "arcane bullshit" but with almost the simplest possible motion, "That This House Has No Confidence In His [or Her] Majesty's Government".
- toyg 3y ago
  Adams never accepted anything - Cameron's admin unilaterally appointed him to the post, which is why Erskine May was subsequently changed to specify Maps are appointed to, rather than accepting, the paid job. "Call me Dave" was making stuff up, as he was wont to do.
- pm215 3y ago
  It doesn't in practice delay things much even with a fairly large group resigning at once -- in 1985 15 Ulster Unionist MPs resigned on the same day, and this was done by cycling between the two offices and spreading the appointments out through the day. So it's silly, but not actually a problem, which is why nobody's bothered to try to tidy it up.
  - kitd 3y ago
    Seems ripe for automation in this day & age. 15 per day, pff! I'm sure with the right cloud services and a well-engineered state machine we could get it up to over a 100. Should be just about enough to handle Tory members as election day approaches...