The failure of parliamentary government

Membership of the EU tested the authority of parliamentary government in the UK. In the traditional model, the government of the day has wide discretion to make policies as long as it has a majority in Parliament. This is usually possible by the first-past-the-post electoral system awarding the party that has a plurality of votes an absolute majority of MPs. Voters can hold the government of the day to account in periodic parliamentary elections that offer a binary choice of who governs; the governing party decides what government does