We’re sorry, Boris. We’re afraid we can’t do that.

So, I wasn’t going to do another political entry this soon. But then @sleepygene said he was expecting one. So, here it is.

Yesterday was a quiet day in Parliament. Not much happened.

I am, of course, just pulling your leg there. It was a big day.

The first thing that happened was the anti No Deal bill got Royal Ascent and became the law of the land. Now, this is important, because Boris Johnson has said he would rather be dead in a ditch than ask the EU for an extension. If he doesn’t ask for the extension, though, he’s breaking the law.

Now, there was the idea that he could send the extension request along with a side letter asking the EU to ignore it, but it turns out that won’t be possible.

Then John Bercow gave an 8 minute speech in which he announced that he would be stepping down as Speaker of the House after the next election or on October 31st, whichever happens to be first. This was followed by him getting a standing ovation from everyone but the Government front bench. They don’t like him because he’s more keen on letting the House have their say than letting the Government do whatever they wanted.

This was followed by a couple of motions under SO24. Thwe first of these was in the form of a Humble Request. This is an ancient device, resurrected by Kier Starmer, Shadow Brexit secretary, to compel the release of documents. This was was by Dominic Grieve, one of the Tory rebels who lost the whip last week. It compelled the release of documents relating to the prorogation of Parliament and Operation Yellowhammer. It was very thorough. It named specific people and called for the release of documents, both private and public, from a variety of sources including Facebook and WhatsApp.

There was the debate, then the vote which the Government lost. The documents should be released tomorrow 11am.

The second one is quite bizarre, it was compelling Government to comply with the law. This was, of course, in relation to the PM’s dead in a ditch comment. It didn’t even go to a division, going through on a voice vote.

Then, after another couple of bits that needed to be done, the PM again tabled a motion calling for an early General Election. Johnson was on something. He was either drunk or on drugs, but there was absolutely no way he was sober. The debate went pretty much the same as the last one. As did the vote. Yay won, but didn’t get enough votes for the election.

For the record, that means that Johnson has lost his first six votes as PM. Which, in itself is a record. No PM has ever done that before. In fact, in 6 days Johnson has lost more votes in Parliament than Maggie Thatcher lost in 11 years as PM.

Then it switched to the Lords for the proroguing. The House of Lords was basically empty. There was a royal commission, normally made up of 5 members of the House, but there were only 3 as Labour and the Lib Dems didn’t take part. They instructed Black Rod to go to the Commons and summon the MP’s.

Now, what usually happens is that Black Rod walks across to the Commons, gets the door slammed in her face, knocks three times, is admitted and announced, informs the speaker that the Commons is needed in the Lords, then the Speaker leads the MP’s through.

Not this time, however.

This time, Black Rod walked through to the Commons, door slammed in face, knocks, enters, announced, says that the Commons is needed in the Lords and there’s a huge shout of “NO!”

John Bercow doesn’t move.

Then, after the Sargent at Arms is called for, Bercow speaks. He says he’s happy to play his part, but this is not a normal prorogation, some MP’s see it as an act of electoral fiat and he will not force MP’s to the Lords if they do not wish to go. Some MP’s made their way to beside the Speakers chair, try to stop him getting up and hold up signs saying “Silenced”. He leads the Tory and DUP MP’s out to a chant of “Shame on you”.

Royal Ascent was given to one outstanding bill. The Queens Speech was read out. Parliament was officially announced as being prorogued and the MP’s left. Bercow announces to the Commons what has just happened.

And that’s it. For the next 5 weeks. As I said, tomorrow is supposed to be the document release. Then we have the party conferences. After that? Nothing until October 14.

So this really should be my last political entry for a while.

Will