.The big dEE .

27.1.25

LONDON: Conservative mp for oil rich aberdeenshire and shadow minister for energy security and net zero Andrew Bowie voiced opposition to a climate bill in the house of commons on friday, and did so in the name of democracy.

“The bill would undermine the power of this parliament and its democratically elected Members and would bind their hands. As the bill suggests, the secretary of state would be duty-bound to act as directed by an unelected body,” he said.

“The bill would also establish a climate and nature assembly to direct the secretary of state’s strategy—a body that the secretary of state would be legally bound to follow if any of the measures it proposed had the support of 66% of its members. Those members would be unelected and unaccountable, unlike members of this house,” he added, referring to members of the house of commons who gained their opportunity for election through an in-house party selection process.

“That is not how decisions are made in this country, and it is not how decisions should be made. Laws and decisions are taken in this country by this parliament, and are introduced mostly by the government, who command a majority in this house. The government are held to account in this house by elected members, and we in turn are held to account by our constituents. We cannot outsource our responsibilities to an unelected, unaccountable and remote institution,” Bowie added, seemingly concerned by deficiencies in democratic processes.

Though oddly, Bowie’s description of the workings of westminster succinctly detailed a non-democratic system. The government, he said, commands a majority in the house of commons while simultaneously being “held to account” by members of parliament. Clearly, because the government commands a majority members of parliament cannot hold it to account.

Bowie also confusingly claimed that mps are held to account by their constituents. But their is no mechanism for citizens to depose their local representative in westminster, apart from during a vote which comes every few or so years and at which the person supposedly being held to account might simply choose not to participate.

If Bowie wanted to show an exemplary democracy as a point of comparison, he may well have chosen poorly.