Can we put them in a box for 5 weeks?
Boris Johnson has asked the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, whether parliament can be shut down for five weeks from 9 September in what appears to be a concerted plan to stop MPs forcing a further extension to Brexit, according to leaked government correspondence.
An email from senior government advisers to an adviser in No 10 – written within the last 10 days and seen by the Observer – makes clear that the prime minister has recently requested guidance on the legality of such a move, known as prorogation. The initial legal guidance given in the email is that shutting parliament may well be possible, unless action being taken in the courts to block such a move by anti-Brexit campaigners succeeds in the meantime.
On Saturday Labour and pro-Remain Tory MPs reacted furiously, saying that the closure of parliament, as a method for stopping MPs preventing a potentially disastrous no-deal Brexit, would be an affront to democracy and deeply irresponsible, particularly given the government’s own acceptance of the economic turmoil no-deal could cause.
And the fact – striking to an outsider at least – that Johnson isn’t even an elected PM.
Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said: “Any plan to suspend parliament at this stage would be outrageous. MPs must take the earliest opportunity to thwart this plan and to stop a no-deal Brexit.”
The prominent Tory remainer and former attorney general Dominic Grieve added: “This memo, if correct, shows Boris Johnson’s contempt for the House of Commons. It may be possible to circumvent the clear intention of the House of Commons in this way but it shows total bad faith. Excluding the house from a national crisis that threatens the future of our country is entirely wrong.”
Maybe the idea is to get ahead of climate change by smashing everything ourselves first.
I finally deeply grok why “may you live in interesting times” is considered a curse.
I’m conflicted over this “unelected PM” thing, though. Strictly speaking, we elect a parliament, not the executive, so no PM is really “elected”. On the other hand, the reality is that many (most?) people vote for a party, often because of who the leader (and, therefore, future PM) is, so changing mid-term could be seen as a big thing. On the gripping hand, though, I suspect it’s only a “big thing” to those who do not currently wield power (but wish to).
After the US Independence War, the British Establishment and its Parliament was dragged kicking and screaming first into the 19th C (Reform Bill and all that) and then, reluctantly, into the 20th. The current living embodiment of both reaction and institutionalised privilege is Boris. (NB: not Karloff; the other one.)
Well, Boris Karloff only played monsters.
We knew this was going to happen. It was almost universally predicted that Johnson would do this if he was made PM. And the conservative party voted him in anyway.
Stewart:
Perhaps a fresh Gunpowder Plot? Will anyone be surprised?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot
Looks like Brenda Hale rendered that unnecessary.