Westministenders: Boris Johnson Broke The Law

[RedToothBrush]

ITS OFFICIAL
The Highest Court in the Land has ruled that Boris Johnson has broken the law.

Parliament is Sovereign.

Despite the calls for his resignation it is highly unlikely he will under the current political climate.

It must be stressed that the judgement was UNAMINOUS and went further than most expected, and took the hardest possible line again the government

The power now lies with the Speakers of the Lords and Commons to decide when Parliament reopens.

It also means that all the bills which were ended by proroguation are now back in play.

Expect a full backlash from the hard right attacking the courts are going full on 'enemies of the people'. This will be NASTY

The strength of this ruling does pretty much rule out another proroguation as the courts are liable to throw it out immediately if they try it on again.

Johnson is in New York. He needs to get on a plane very quickly.

It’s my birthday. The SC judgement is just about the best birthday present ever.

It's my birthday tomorrow. Hoping Johnson will top it off with his resignation. Happy birthday to you!

What a farce.

I bet the sales of spider brooches on eBay are through the roof. Gina Miller, Joanna Cherry and Lady Hale are complete heroines.

@JinglingHellsBells, fiw, not everyne can spend hours trawling different news site, twitter and the likes to understand whats going in and have a FULL picture of the situation rather than what is saying in our own little bubble.

I, for one, is vey grateful for @RedToothBrush and all the other posters on these threads that are putting all that information one single place.

so a very big THANK YOU from me instead.

Highly unlikely that they are all remainers. I think that it's highly likely that they are which is irrelevant in this judgement.

Amber Rudd MP
@AmberRuddHR
· 53m
Despite personal assurances from the PM, the Cabinet was not shown the legal advice around this prorogation.

This is an astonishing moment and I regret that the PM, who entered office with such goodwill, went down this route. I urge him to work with Parliament to pass a Deal.

DG Rossetti

I am not rewriting history. The sheer complexity of Brexit from a legal standpoint wasn’t fully appreciated. I went to a very interesting lecture by Lord Thomas after he retired as LCJ and he was saying the same. For example, he talked about the unintended consequences on the European arrest warrant. We have recently seen quite a bit of confusion over the recognition of qualifications. I am a lawyer, I voted remain, I am used to implementing legislation in a business context, I have worked with HMT on legislation in the past and the scale is beyond what anyone expected.

Ah, I see the AIBU randoners have shown up.

@Alsohuman, interesting that they are all women too....

Why post anything at all?

I don't know?

BECAUSE I CAN!!!!!
Is a good enough response.

Freedom of speech and all that shit.
Magna Carta.
Parliamentary Soveriegnty.

Yum yum yum.

I am half pleased by the outcome, but surprised.

I watched the case in full last week and the issues that Lady Hale raises in her judgment were apparent. I note that Lady Hale does not opine over the reason for the length of prorogation. She simply says it was not justified by the defence and the the defence ignored the fact that, even during the conference season, there is ongoing activity outside the chamber in parliament.

Nevertheless, the judgment has surprised me because there is no legal benchmark regarding the length of prorogation, so no law was broken. Also, the reason for bringing the case is as politically motivated as the alleged reason for a long prorogation.

Admittedly this is based on my rusty undergraduate understanding of public law, but I do worry that the careful balance of power between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary is under threat at the moment and that, as a country, we are left with a defunct executive that cannot bring a general election until the legislature agree. When the executive is defunct, the country cannot be governed effectively and a general election is a necessity.

I am really grateful to RTB and everyone for summarizing the news as it comes in. It's hard to keep up with it and I find it very helpful.

@RedToothBrush wasn't the Benn law given royal assent before Parliament was prorogued though? I can't remember the time line now. Was it in direct response as to threatened prorogation? I can't remember that either, sorry.

A PM is only PM by virtue of having the confidence of a majority of MPs
Even after a landslide GE win though, the PM is subject to the law - or we wouldn't have a functioning democracy

Normally when a PM loses this majority - as BJ has done - there would be a VoNC and either the PM would be replaced by a majority vote, or a GE would be called

Politically, it is unfortunate that the Rebel Alliance didn't have the unity to go this conventional route,
so that we've ended up with private citizens having to fund court action to reverse unlawful actions by the PM

However, the judges did their duty and ruled according to Constitutional law
So they are our democratic stopgap against a dictatorial executive
That bit of the Constitutional safeguards still works

This sorry saga has shown the British public - those who are paying attention - and the whole world
that we have a PM who acts unlawfully to get his own way

We must wait to see if he now compounds his wrongdoing, or dials back, or resigns

Also like other legal cases the loser will pay the winners' costs.

So the taxpayer will pay for the government's folly covering both the claimants' and government's costs. As soon as the proceedings happened the govt should have taken advice, said it's a fair cop and recalled Parliament - that would have minimised the legal bill.

No PMQs tomorrow since that requires three days notice.

And on the subject of spiders:

What a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.

Im guessing this could end up in a confidence motion?

Red or BCF would you agree?

@RedToothBrush collects the news so we don't all have to
Not everyone has time

Even more importantly, she analyses it brilliantly, so we can debate the implications and understand wtf is happening in our poor confused & divided country

Richard Harrington @Richard4Watford
Today’s ruling reaffirms the sovereignty of Parliament & why I resigned as a Minister & lost the Party Whip - to stand up for our democracy. It also teaches future governments that there will always be checks & balances on their power. I look forward getting back to work asap.

More seriously, I've been prattling on about the pillars of democracy and government accountability for so bloody long (WAY before this went anywhere near a court) and how there were so few people who properly understand the relationship of the executive, parliament, courts, media and the people properly and how this was a Really Bad and Dangerous Thing.

So I do feel somewhat vindicated today that the entire country is getting a rapid crash course in this.

I am worried about the political effect of this, but its something that is essential to the protection of democracy, to spread awareness and the importance of it.

The legal costs are cheap at the price for confirming that we are a nation built on law where, be you ever so might, the law is still above you.

Every so often, discussion throws up some pithy succinct exchanges which capture essential truths. Here's a great one I saw a few minutes ago

We are currently driving endlessly round the Brussels ringroad, and none of our numerous drivers can agree on which exit route to take - Norway, Canada++, BrINO, NoDeal, Ref2, and Much-Binding-In-the-Marsh all have their advocates.

This is the fundamental problem with Brexit - it can only command widespread support in the abstract. As soon as you try and crystallise it into an actual plan of action, the support falls apart into different factions who were imagining different end results. Which is also why allowing it to happen would be a betrayal of democracy.

Lexiter DH doesn't like Gina Miller. I reminded him that when she first brought her A50 case she did it jointly with a Leaver - Dos Santos. He's completely forgotten now.

This judgement is important - it's not OK for a PM to just prorogue Parliament on a whim.

I can't stand how Brexiteers chop and change their position with such ease.

First off shutting parliament had nothing to do with Brexit, now the Supreme Court is part of a Remoaner conspiracy.

Getting a deal would be easy, now leaving without one is the way to go.

This is about democracy, not Brexit. How can the Tories continue like this after misleading the Queen, and ignoring the constitution.

Once an Act has received Royal Assent I struggle to see how that could be challenged. It had already passed both HoP.

In the tradition of the Queen’s brooch’s do google Boris the Spider 😂😂