Last year, I wrote a piece on the steps that the Conservative Government were taking to reduce opposition here in the House of Commons and tonight, we see one more massive block in the wall.

Despite losing the election and, their Parliamentary majority, the Conservative Government has voted to grant itself majorities on Commons legislative committees.

They have decided to do this because they are afraid that opposition members of Parliament would oppose Government policies forcing them to work with said opposition parties to get better legislation passed. This is also known as the democratic process.

Instead of relying on the democratic process, the Tories are going to aim for the best outcome for themselves. Forced majorities on every legislative committee means the Government will now rule unopposed, able to pass whatever they want; when they want. That is not how democracy works.

In passing this motion, the Conservative Government has given up all democratic legitimacy.

With the passing of this motion, Parliament, once again, becomes a talking shop. Some measures to soften Brexit may be passed but, the executive have regained total control of the Parliament without actually earning it. For the price of £1.5 billion pounds the Conservative party have secured the hardest possible exit from the EU and the paper-thin excuse that, "Parliament voted for it so it must be what the people want".

Even during tonight's debate, the Conservatives sought to re-write history claiming that, "The Government commanded a majority in the House of Commons."

Of course, they do not have that majority because the Democratic Unionist Party is not part of the Government. They claim, like Donald Trump, that their rigging motion is proper and Parliamentary solely because, Parliament passed the motion. Without slipping into too much hyperbole, that's a very slippery slope.

When I wrote about the pattern of the Conservative party weakening Parliament and the opposition. David Cameron was still the Prime Minister and Brexit had not yet happened. Now as then, the first order of business for this Government and that political party was to emasculate Parliament to make life as easy for them as possible.

If the SNP had even spoke of introducing this measure in Holyrood, there would not be one paper that would be supporting the SNP in their actions. Days of coverage would have surrounded the political outrage and, rightly so.

The Conservatives knew they could pull this off because this is not a hot political issue. The morning papers here in London will not read with headlines of outrage at a democratically-defunct Government and that is the real travesty of this evening. Under the guise of "taking back control" the executive is going to give itself more power than ever and all we can do now is watch and wait.

UPDATE 14/09/2017 ---------------------------------------------

Over the past 48 hours, the Conservative Government are, reportedly, going to ignore Parliamentary opposition day debates.

In short, the Government control nearly all facets of the operation of Parliament. They control what bills are debated, they control the timing for those bills and they control the rules of the House.

Opposition days are granted under Parliament standing orders (the rules of the Commons). The Government DOES NOT HAVE CONTROL of these days and the opposition parties can debate anything they want and control the timings of the House of Commons.

Mostly, these debates are over non-binding motions but,they give an opportunity for the opposition to accomplish something while they wait for the next election.

Yesterday, the Government REFUSED to vote on the first opposition day in months and, it has been reported, via this tweet, that the Conservative party are going to stop voting to opposition debates altogether.

V signif. Tory sources say their MPs will not be expected to vote on ANY Opp Day debates for rest of Parliament. https://t.co/gKWknBwUdF

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 13, 2017

This is basically, a slap in the face to the opposition parties who put a lot of work into these days and need a vote to legitimise their arguments. It basically shows contempt for Parliament and a desire to quash any serious vocal opposition.

Most importantly, it prevents the Government from ever losing a vote. The catalyst for this event were reports that the DUP (yes, that DUP) were going to support Labour in the vote thus eliminating the Conservative majority. Due to this rumour, the Government ran away from the fight.

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow was quoted today saying,

"Parliamentary votes do matter and I think it would be a very worrying development if they were to be treated lightly or disregarded." -John Bercow, Speaker, House of Commons

So, not only have the Conservatives rigged Parliament, they are also going to ignore every aspect of Commons customs and insult the rest of Parliament by using it as and when they need it.

These are truly unparalleled days.