Rather than hoping for the emergence of some new ‘party of the left,’ EMMA DENT COAD sees a broad alliance of local parties and community groups as a way of reviving democratic progressive politics

THERESA MAY was humiliated by MPs this week. Newsrooms and the internet were awash with people asking what “contempt of Parliament” even meant, since the offence is so unusual. And for a government to be declared in contempt of Parliament is unheard of.
We’re in uncharted territory and perhaps that’s why the immediate result of the vote seemed like an anti-climax. If governments lose the confidence of the House of Commons, they fall and, if another government can’t be cobbled together, the House is dissolved and a general election is held.
Three defeats in just over an hour on Tuesday show that the government clearly has lost control of the House. And yet MPs confined their demands to No 10 publishing the legal advice it had received on May’s Brexit deal.

