Two things about Johnson’s decision to prorogue. Firstly, the Queen appointed him without asking for a demonstration that he has the confidence of the House. While not against the law/conventions of the Constitution, given he now asks for Parliament to be prorogued for the longest period in decades it might have been wise to confirm that he has that confidence. Secondly, the House of Commons has only sat for one day since he became Prime Minister, and he prorogues it before it sits again. 🙄 …
Stop the Coup
I went down to Whitehall to demonstrate against the Tory coup. I took some pictures, of the signs and crowds, they are below/overleaf in a slide show.
Although some of these pictures were taken earlier in the year. …
A very British Coup
So it seems the ruthless Johnson Regime plan to suspend Parliament to stop it holding them to account for their Brexit do-or-die policy.
We are in Charles 1st territory now! The English Civil War was fought to make the Government subordinate to (some of) the people’s representatives and it was the King who eventually lost his head in attempting to ensure that his Government could rule without reference to the elected House of Commons. One of the procedural/structural 450 year old reforms was the development of the post/role of Speaker; the reason the Speaker is dragged to the Chair on their election is that standing up to the Crown was originally personally very dangerous.
In these circumstances, the Speaker can and should just tell the Government that the House of Commons will continue to meet.
We should note that control of the Met. Police, who control the doors is shared between the Home Secretary and the Mayor of London, but we need to give MP’s some help by showing our solidarity with them as they return to the House of Commons.
Please write to your MP, and sign these petitions,
…