The government has committed to putting the proposed FTA with China to a vote in Parliament. This is great news. The FTA has been negotiated in total secrecy - we literally have no idea what the government is signing us up for - and a Parliamentary vote will finally allow some proper democratic scrutiny and control.
But this isn't just about the FTA - it also sets a useful precedent for the future. Currently, the government can sign and ratify whatever deals it wants, a relic of the bygone age when treaties were private deals between unelected kings, not public acts of democratically elected governments. But once we've had one vote on a treaty, it becomes a lot harder for the government to deny them in future, meaning a further transfer of power from the executive to the legislature, and a further nail in the coffin of archaic monarchical prerogatives. And IMHO, that can only be a Good Thing.
