OPINION:
No one had ever heard of the phrase “proroguing Parliament” until a few months ago. To prorogue is not one of those verbs in daily use — just imagine announcing, “I want to prorogue doing the dishes.”
But in the U.K. right now it features in every news headline, because, by jove, Boris has actually done it — or rather, the queen has done it for him as, constitutionally, only she can prorogue Parliament.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced this maneuver in a casual way, “This morning I spoke to Her Majesty The Queen to request an end to the current parliamentary session in the second sitting week in September.”
To listen to angry “Remainers” you might think he has just declared martial law. Yet, despite their heated rhetoric, every parliamentary session ends with the queen proroguing one parliamentary session before she opens a new one, so why all the fuss?
Well, this Parliament has been “sitting” for a very long time — ever since Theresa May got elected in 2017. Indeed, it is now the second-longest parliament in history at 298 days.
Only the “Long Parliament” during the English civil war lasted longer at a whopping 3,322 days, sitting from 1640 until 1653.
Oliver Cromwell famously ended that by sending in the army and shouting, “Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance … In the name of God go!”
Mr. Johnson rather less dramatically asked the queen to allow him to end Mrs. May’s long Parliament and allow a new sitting for his new legislative agenda.
Parliament closes anyway for the parties to hold their conventions in late September, so Mr. Johnson is just letting it stay closed a little longer.
Cynics, and there are plenty of them, feel he has really done it to reduce the amount of time the Remainers in Parliament have to block Brexit.
All throughout the summer recess, they have been plotting to stop the Brexit train leaving Brussels Central Station on Oct. 31. So, any time that is taken away from letting them enact their plans, makes them madder than a puffed toad.
One Labor MP, Clive Lewis, has threatened to stay seated in the House of Commons until the police throw him out and he has called for people to take to the streets in protest.
The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, who gave up any pretence of being impartial on Brexit some time ago, has called it a “constitutional outrage.”
Mr. Bercow added. “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose would be to stop parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country.”
Coalitions have been forming among the usual suspects from the left, but even Conservative heavyweights like Mrs. May’s chancellor, Phillip Hammond, and former Attorney General Dominic Grieve have announced they are willing to overthrow their own government.
They claim they are just trying to stop a “no-deal” Brexit, but these are the same people who were against any kind of Brexit at the time of the referendum.
Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major has stated that, “I for one would be prepared to seek judicial review to prevent Parliament from being bypassed … I cannot imagine how anyone could conceivably think that is right.”
Tough talk for someone who himself prorogued Parliament over a cash for questions scandal back in 1997.
The reality is Remainers still have plenty of time to realize their machinations and the hot favorite seems to be a vote of no-confidence to remove Mr. Johnson from power.
But even if they succeed, the prime minister could wait to call an election until after the Oct. 31 date when the U.K. leaves the EU. Parliament would also have to be dissolved 25 days before that, so that would be game over for the Remainer resistance.
Better for them would be to let Mr. Johnson attend the EU summit on Oct. 17-18 and if he comes back with a better deal then vote on that soon afterward so Britain could be leaving with a deal.
As for Mr. Johnson, he has to decide whether he stands more chance of winning an election, whenever it comes, by accepting an EU deal or not. This is because his biggest threat comes not from Labor, but the Brexit party that could split his vote and cost him victory.
Its leader and kingmaker, Nigel Farage, has just stated, “The unanswered question is whether Boris Johnson intends to pursue the Withdrawal Agreement. If he does, then The Brexit Party will fight him every inch of the way. But if he now wants a clean break Brexit then we would like to help him secure a large majority in a general election.”
• Andrew Davies is a U.K.-based video producer and scriptwriter.
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