division_name: Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c798.5/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We have also passed the Fixed Term Parliament Act, an unprecedented transfer of Executive power.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c801.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Reform of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act must keep the Queen out of politics.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c802.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;would be detrimental to the national economy&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c802.2/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;another Prime Minister who could carry on his Government, for a reasonable period, with a working majority in the House of Commons.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c805.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The statement of principles accompanying the Bill appears to presume that the Queen will dissolve Parliament as a matter of course when the Prime Minister so requests, thus implying an intention, on the part of the Government, not to restore the pre-FTPA position but to usher in a regime under which its latitude is greater than before&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c805.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the very legal uncertainty as to whether the prerogative can be revived means that it would be irresponsible simply to legislate to repeal the Act and try to revive the prerogative without being sure that you could.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c808.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Fixed-term Parliaments Act had a provision that limited the time within which writs for parliamentary elections could be moved, and it is the latter that I think you would be wise to introduce into this Bill.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c808.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I suspect that if the Prime Minister was effectively attempting to rule without Parliament by simply failing to issue writs of summons, the courts might well intervene for precisely the same reasons that they intervened in the case of the prorogation&#8230;I think it quite likely that the reasoning in Miller No. 2 would be applied to that situation. But, because this is a very undesirable state of affairs, I would very strongly urge you to introduce into the Bill a provision with a time limit.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c810.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the use of the Royal Prerogative subject to greater democratic control&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c815.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Regulations can be made to hold&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c824.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;as if the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 had never been enacted.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c831.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Prime Minister could choose to advise the Queen to set a polling date 6 months in the future, or later, or could delay giving any advice on the subject to the Queen at all.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c831.0/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time; but there is the broad feeling in our country that the people should rule&#8230;and that public opinion, expressed by all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and control the actions of Ministers who are their servants and not their masters.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-11-11">11 November</phrase> 1947; Vol. 444, c. 207.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c834.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a fixed-term Parliament arrangement&#8230;was a product entirely of the coalition discussions.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c848.1/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a red herring&#8230;because&#8230;it is perfectly plain that the intention of the Act is to restore the situation to what it was before&#8230;and therefore the law will then be indistinguishable&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c848.1/14" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;it would be catastrophic for everyone involved&#8230;if the&#8230; period were to be shortened&#8230;It would create a significant risk of the election failing and not being delivered and increase the risk of disenfranchising potential electors, particularly those voting from overseas.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c851.3/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;at the heart of the UK&#8217;s constitutional arrangements is a fine but constantly-shifting balance of convention, principle and law, that provides clear guidance, but also flexibility&#8230; In areas of prerogative power, the Sovereign remains the constitutional backstop.&#8221;</p>