a question i put to professor meg russell from the constitution unit and bbc parliamentary correspondenty asking markjust how unusualjohn bercow‘s intervention had been? well, in some ways, the procedural ruling was quite straightforward. most of the commons clerks seemed to think that this was a fairly unexceptional thing to declare, that you can keep on putting the same thing again and again to the house in the same parliamentary year, parliamentary session, until the point, hopefully from the point of view of the government, that they actually win it! that they don't think is the right way to proceed and it is basically there is the rule there to stop the government from effectively bullying the commons. but it's a very old rule and it is not used very often. well, it hasn't needed to be used very often. you don't get situations where the government keeps coming back with the same big constitutional mega—vote at regular intervals in the hope that next time they will get a different answer. to that extent, it may not need to be invoked very often, but when it is being invoked it is act

it is an intriguing landscape to be let's get the thoughts now of professor meg russell who is directorat university college, london. very pleased to be here. this concept of a range of indicative votes, prime minister, very clear in the house saying you can vote for whatever you like but i am not in the position where i can act on any of them. how should people be regarding this process?” of them. how should people be regarding this process? i think there are two levels, one level in which what she says is true in as much if mps are voting for a certain version of brexit, she cannot deliver that on her own. that is subject to the eu partners. we are talking about opening up the political declaration, not the withdrawal agreement, to move towards a potential softer brexit. at the same time there are things she can promise on her own as prime minister, for example, if mps demand a referendum it is in her power to deliver. there is a degree where it could be a bit disingenuous to say if parliament want something, the government will not act on that amount because in the end, the governmen