MPs have 'no idea what they're voting on' and can be found 'cowering in the toilet'

“People go around the loos making sure there are no MPs still cowering in the toilet.”
Stepping down after 14 years as the only Green MP, Caroline Lucas tells Matt Chorley “a lot of MPs, a lot of the time have no idea what they’re voting on” when revealing how "dysfunctional" parliament is.
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[@fredholmes49]

Imagine a parliament full of intelligent and informed MPs like Caroline

[@robertfrancis7767]

Please no stop your making me laugh.

[@TheLucanicLord]

A prerequisite for that is intelligent and informed voters.

[@EmilyWorker]

That gave me a laugh

[@robertfrancis7767]

@TheLucanicLord Yes well a lot of the electorate abroad are not like Uk electorate like India eg:22% illiterate plus the minimalist education. You have people who have education and intelligence in UK but.not necessarily access to the full info, because a lot of the MPs are failures or mediocre in their chosen area.They wanted to be Surgeons not a GP etc. Chartered Accountant not certified or management Accountant. Journalism also does not necessarily mean automatically a polymath.

[@just_watching_you_tube]

Are you more of a Lee Anderthal follower? @@robertfrancis7767

[@colinmccall7824]

Comes across as a honest and thoughtful person and politician. Wish we had more like her. Refreshingly free of arrogance, entitlement and bombast, whether you agree with her or not (I do).

[@johnburrows3385]

What a lovely lady .

[@CatholicSatan]

She wrote a remarkable book some time ago about our dysfunctional Parliament. I can see that 14 years of the nonsense would grind anyone down.

[@davidk7262]

She is a real loss to parliament. Forget if you agree with her politics you can’t deny that if more of our mps were as principled as her we would be a heck of a lot better off.

[@1pauljs]

💯👏

[@keeshond8]

Thank you Caroline for your years of service in parliament. You have had to plough a lonely furrow on behalf of your constituents as well as fighting on behalf of so many of us in the country: it cannot have been easy in recent years when the current Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, gave you such short shrift and bowed to braying Conservatives who often tried to stop your voice from being heard.

[@oliver556]

Caroline has always been a diamond amongst the coals when it comes to UK political figures. With a PR system she could have been far more influential and effective.

[@chrishyde1216]

One of our best politicians, if not the best. Caroline's intellect, vision and humble willingness to face and deal with reality and the truth of our situation is so needed. We learn from Caroline's approach so there will be a great legacy. The fact that there isn't a role for her in government shows how bad things are. Typically excellent interviewing by Matt also.

[@shawngrinter2747]

My MP and a superstar

[@norawright807]

Don't go, Caroline. Please don't go.

[@chrishyde1216]

70-80 hours a week. That's tough in that environment.

[@annepoitrineau5650]

She is so remarkable. Wonderful MP, wonderful individual.

[@plunder1956]

One of my all time hero MPs in Westminster. We keep loosing the best MPs because of negative personal attitudes and party bullying.

[@cobbler40]

The main thing is we can vote out any government of any colour (it would be better with PR) . We should not trust any politician. Democracy is what matters.

[@user-qi1jc1yn3o]

Interesting that St. George was mentioned along with the Palestinians flag as if the interviewer didn’t know that St. George is also the patron saint of Palestine. 🇵🇸

[@TheLucanicLord]

Muslims don't have saints! (I have no idea if this is true, I'm just getting in practice to stand for Tice Ltd.)

[@minui8758]

@@TheLucanicLordI think you’ll find the Shia’s have some remarkably similar ideas to catholic and orthodox Xian sainthood and the associated culture of shrines and pilgrimage to go with it. Also Palestine was Xian before it was Muslim and still has a substantial minority Xian population

[@SuzanneO707]

Her book about the archaic house. Was great. And as library worker gave it a review and it was borrowed a few times. I vote Green if I get a second choice in local elections. But its a two horse race where I live. Although Tories wouldn't have got in if just went of our votes. Always a shame that progressives have split over the years. But there you go.

[@esamiga]

She’s just brilliant! I wished Starmer had even 1% of her qualities, both in terms of values and leadership.

[@thetragicyouth]

💯👍👍👍

[@AlanWarrenBelfastArchitect]

A good interview and interesting insights.

[@claudiafigueiredo4979]

Wht a joke parlament is in uk how can u represent ppl when u don't know wht u voting for

[@andybimson-sp2fx]

On patriotism, I’ve always felt it’s more patriotic to believe your country can improve and be even better than it is now, rather than saying “we are great, nothing needs changing, this is as good as it gets”.

[@James_Haskell]

I’m going to miss her as my MP. I really hope that sian berry does replace her

[@tobeytransport2802]

4:21 this should be a criminal offence to pressure the elected representatives of a constituency in such a forceful way, let MPs answer to voters not whips.

[@matthewsemple]

Agreed - it's disgusting and very undemocratic. The UK has no more than a veneer of a democracy.

[@ajw9533]

One day, we might discover how may if them had any idea what the Single Market and Customs Union were while voting for us to leave them.

[@rolandrothwell4840]

Caroline was a fine member of Parliament. Good public speaker. She put the Greens on the map

[@cantin8697]

They're forced to vote on stuff they know nothing about... oh god...

[@jonboymk1bridgemaryfront889]

It's always the best and caring English MPs, who always gets stamped on and silenced by the parliament system. It will always be the best of our MPs not ginvwn the top jobs in government. A weak leader needs weaker people working under him/her, then the parlimentry system is complete 😢

[@Dolute]

Vote Green people!

[@annepoitrineau5650]

The one thing I really cannot abide is that MPs votes are not secret. Talk about lack of democracy!

[@philbirch3452]

The member for the Romulan Star Empire is in no position to call out others for lack of knowledge.

[@Withnail1969]

Votes arent even needed anyway for most things. There are already enough 1930s Germany style 'enabling acts' or 'enabling clauses' on the books.

[@asher8464]

Labour is cautious on spending because ....... the country is broke.

[@indricotherium4802]

Only hiding and cowering in the toilets? Well that's something at least.

[@user-cc3yc9ni3p]

ALL. ROYAL. LOVERS. ????????

[@hyacinthfulton2190]

Leave Stamer alone What about Sunak Tory is for the Rich

[@hecter3008]

The people have seen how unhinged the greens are in Scotland and he booted themout.

[@James_Haskell]

The Scottish greens are a different party

[@hecter3008]

@@James_Haskell yes, they are the green wackos

[@KevTheImpaler]

Hasn't Scottish politics shown how nutty Green politics is?

[@ProTantoQuid]

The record of the Greens in Scotland and Brighton does not impress in terms of functionality. Their philosophy is probably too narrow to make a breakthrough as it makes them scornful of majority opinion - a poor starting point when you have to persuade people towards modest self-sacrifice.

[@robertfrancis7767]

Caroline Lucas member for Brighton Pavillons a virtual Independent as Green Party only MP. As party leader failed on the bio-hazard Covid 19 outbreak. High energy cost prices policies for the vulnerable and ordinary people, etc. Nice person but not a practical politician really. As for her constituent here posting saying she is a Superstar. All I can say is was there much Soup. Her appearences on Question time meant a break from Kenneth Clarke from how many minutes before he says "Margaret" or how many times Pritti Patel says "actually" also inviting Poet Benjamin Zephaniah on fishing policy "I think all the fish should be left in the Sea". Ban all fish and chip shops. Oh the antics on the road show, value purely for amusement purposes. One day politics will come back yes one day it will come back.

[@jamesvdv0]

She preferred Mrs May as PM and wants a "progressive" agenda for England going forward. Says it all about her really. 🤔

[@thetragicyouth]

Maybe listen to what she actually said about May in this interview instead completely misrepresenting her? 🤔

[@TomTomicMic]

A vote for the Greens is a vote for Victorian Britain, but not as it was a majorly thriving metropolis but a stagnant economy and rundown slums where we will be burning firewood to keep warm, they cannot do the Maths on climate change and the technology does not fully exist and the bits that do that are easy to roll out are quaqmired in poor planning and little investment as they are unaffordable in the short term (All in one decade basically) when it should take three decades at least which is what our rivals are doing!?!

[@graycurties6479]

LUCAS TIME TO SWITCH OFF

[@scottwalkerjnr]

A vote for the Greens is a vote for the Tories.

[@calastyphon3414]

Being a captured vote is hardly democracy then

[@zinghao131]

I disagree. In those constituencies she mentioned at the start, where they stand a chance they should BY ALL MEANS be voted for. We need them and more of them. Don't worry Labour will get enough votes elsewhere

[@samuelmelton8353]

Not really. Besides, in the upcoming election Labour will likely win decisively, so really we ought to be putting the pressure on them. A vote for the current Labour party is essentially a vote for red tories - besides renationalising the railways, which even some Tories agree with, they have nothing special to offer. A vote for Greens at least shows support for electoral reform.

[@alantootill4285]

Total nonsense. A vote for the Greens is a vote against everything they stand for.

[@garycannon2887]

A vote for labour is a vote for tories

[@rsvbiker4149]

You mean sniffing in the 🚽

[@rolandrothwell4840]

Caroline was a fine member of Parliament. Good public speaker. She put the Greens on the map