Prorogue Trooper

Yes, it’s another political entry.

First thing I have to do is correct myself. In my last politics entry, I said that the Government had lost an appeal at the High Court in Scotland. It was, in fact the Court of Sessions. The High Court deals with appeals in criminal cases, which this wasn’t.

So, a couple of weekends ago, Call Me Dave emerged from his shed and started talking publicly. The reason is because his new book came out two weeks ago and he needed to promote it. In doing so, he said:#

• He doesn’t regret austerity, thinks it was necessary and, in fact, didn’t go far enough,
• Corbyn did nothing for the Remain campaign and
• Boris Johnson only backed Leave in the referendum to benefit his career.

The following Tuesday, the appeals in the Supreme Court were heard. There were the maximum 11 judges hearing the case. This is where I tell you about the questions the judges were looking at.

1. Is this justiciable? This one is pretty simple. Is the proroguing of Parliament something that the courts can look at, or is it under parliamentary privilege?
2. Was it unlawful? This should be self explanatory.
3. What can actually be done about it? Can it be cancelled or is it too late?

The Government offered no defence. Literally, all they said was that it wasn’t justiciable.

Then, at the weekend, Johnson was in trouble again when he was accused of using tax payer money to, basically, get laid. Though the woman involved swears that he only went to her house to learn about technology.

Seriously.

Then, at 10:30am on Tuesday, Lady Hale, President of the Supreme Court, read out the courts decision. Now, it was widely expected that they would either rule it wasn’t justiciable and that it would be a split decision.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that it was justiciable, it was unlawful and, as a result, the proroguing was quashed. It never happened.

Enter John Bercow.

He consulted with the Lords Speaker and the leaders of all the main parties and announced that Parliament would be back yesterday at 11:30am.

Labour had to cut their conference short, but they returned. Johnson had to return from his home city, New York.

(Betcha you didn’t know that, huh? Yup, Johnson is American by birth, but he’s given up his American citizenship.)

There were a couple of emergency questions, then a statement from Johnson followed by questions to him.

It was possibly the absolute worst I’ve ever seen the Commons. Johnson was, basically, belligerent. He didn’t seem to care what he was saying. He was asked numerous times to watch his language as some of the things he was saying was inflammatory and he refused to do so.

The whole idea was to try and force the opposition parties to initiate a Vote of No Confidence, but none of them fell for the obvious trap.

Today, there was a vote on a recess for the Tory party conference next week, which the Government lost. For the record, that means that Johnson has lost 7 votes in Parliament and a Supreme Court ruling.

Will