Does Britain have a Government at the moment or not ?

[TheFaQQer]

Going to be interesting if Sinn Fein decide to take up their seats at Westminster.

From your link:

However, a Sinn Fein spokesman told The Scotsman: “I can confirm that we will not be taking up our seats in Westminster.

[Big Blue Plymouth]

From your link:

Ah...I didn't read it - I read the Sun version but didn't want to link to it :

SINN Fein’s seven MPs will fly into London today to take up their Commons offices – sparking Tory fears they may try to wreck the Prime Minister’s wafer thin majority.
The Sun can also reveal the Irish Republican party have refused to rule out taking their seats for the first time to vote through a Labour Queen’s Speech if Jeremy Corbyn offered them a referendum on unifying Ireland.

[BlasterBates]

I think it is safe to assume that if there is a problem with the DUP that Sinn Fein will be doing whatever they can to stop them. I doubt that they'll simply just sit tight in Northern Ireland grinding their teeth.

[milanbenes]

The Sun can also reveal the Irish Republican party have refused to rule out taking their seats for the first time to vote through a Labour Queen’s Speech if Jeremy Corbyn offered them a referendum on unifying Ireland :

omg

imagine that, they've been fighting since William of Orange, and now they run a referendum on unification, I wouldn't like to see what would happen next

according to google Eire population is 4 million something and NI population is just under 2 million - hmm, this aint gonna be pretty

Milan.

[TheFaQQer]

I think it is safe to assume that if there is a problem with the DUP that Sinn Fein will be doing whatever they can to stop them. I doubt that they'll simply just sit tight in Northern Ireland grinding their teeth.

I doubt that Sinn Fein will ever take an oath of allegiance to the Queen, which they need to do to take up their seats as MPs. There was lots of confusion when Adams resigned his seat in the past because you can only resign your seat by taking a crown office (eg becoming Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham) and he refused to take a crown office. So technically he was still the MP because you can't resign to trigger a by election.

[VectraMan]

I think it is safe to assume that if there is a problem with the DUP that Sinn Fein will be doing whatever they can to stop them. I doubt that they'll simply just sit tight in Northern Ireland grinding their teeth.

It went largely unnoticed, but in the GE the SDLP and UUP both lost all their seats to Sinn Fein/DUP. So NI like the rest of the UK has become more polarised. Which is never good.

Surely Sinn Fein wouldn't waste the opportunity of a referendum unless they knew they had the numbers, and they're still a long way off as I understand it.

[eek]

Sinn Fein always take up their Parliamentary offices (to ensure they can claim the expenses required to pay for their constituency staff). They also do the work a constituency MP normally does in solving issues their constituents have.

The only thing they won't do is to enter the chamber of the house of commons itself....

[PurpleGorilla]

Sinn Fein always take up their Parliamentary offices (to ensure they can claim the expenses required to pay for their constituency staff). They also do the work a constituency MP normally does in solving issues their constituents have.

The only thing they won't do is to enter the chamber of the house of commons itself....

Yet.

[oscarose]

No and it's not happening anytime soon...

Those bible bashers drive a hard bargain, I'd check again a few weeks...

[d000hg]

Going to be interesting if Sinn Fein decide to take up their seats at Westminster.

Link

SF said categorically that since they campaigned on the basis of absenteeism, they would not be taking up their seats.