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.

You need to learn to count as well as spot the big Crown on the Supreme Court shield.

To be fair, Russia last had a royal family in 1917 ...

The only reason Brexit didn't happen on 31 March is that the Tories saw they were 24% ahead in the opinion polls and went for an early GE, to get a landslide

Instead, May cocked up, Corbyn stepped up - and the Tories lost their majority

A minority govt always has problems getting policies through, especially something that reverses the last 45 years
and splits the country down the middle

Even then, if enough Tories and the DUP had voted for the WA, with the Labour Lexiters, we would have left.

The problem is that Leavers have several different - and conflicting - versions of Leave
If they had agreed on one particular route, we would have left

But many Tories who wanted, or would accept, the Norway-type Leave that was so often discussed during the ref campaign,
are opposed to No Deal, which a cabal of rich spivs have been pushing ever since the ref

These spivs have bet against Sterling, bet against British businesses - they would have a windfall from No Deal

I'm concentrating on the informed discussions on here now.

Take it as a compliment when there are such blatant attempts to derail.

Anyone know how share prices are doing? Oil price is down.
Not that I have any shares

Will be watching Corbyn's speech at 4 with interest.

What rock did greener appear from beneath
they are rather entertaining

Still catching up on the thread but just jotting down some thoughts (that may be covered later in the thread )...

I've noticed that Bercow is wearing the same tie that he wore on the night that Parliament wasn't prorogued. I wonder if that is deliberate

Re the Benn Bill supposedly being illegal because it was to do with the prorogation Parliament/The backbenchers may have been incentivised to back the bill and push it through quickly because of the imminent prorogation - but as far as I understand it, the bill is independent of prorogation . There is a possible argument that it might be bad law because it was rushed through quickly (but by all accounts it has been carefully and tightly drafted ) - but that is a side effect of the government's own actions and not in itself to do with the prorogation.

A minority govt always has problems getting policies through,

Only if they are unpopular ...

Agree this is not a 'deep state'.
It was said, very early on in the threads, Brexit reveals the state to be remarkably shallow and a bit fragile, held together by a lot of suspension of disbelief and things pottering on with a fair wind.

You think angry squid grass is entertaining? You should have a read of the thread in Chat. Wowzers.

I no longer think No Deal is the 95% probability, but I still think it's at least 50%

However, greener's frenetic frothing clearly shows some people fear Revoke instead
Otherwise they would have posted a couple of languid "so what" posts and then chilled elsewhere

It's actually quite reassuring

Amazing how the Supreme Court judges are all remainders desperately thwarting brexit by ruling the apparently nothing to do with brexit coz it's completely normal guv prorogation unlawful.

It's almost as if it's completely to do with brexit and wasn't normal at all.

James Cleverly MP @JamesCleverly
Lib Dems used their conference to say they would revoke article 50

Lab used theirs to decide not to decide their view on Brexit

We’ll use ours to set out our positive vision for the country outside the EU

Of course #CPC19 is going ahead - look forward to seeing you all in MCR

Translation: Oh Shit. We can't get a refund on our GMEX booking, so we all have to pretend its All Fine.

Should the Opposition manage to get a bunch of key votes timetabled quickly, so Tory MPs have to be in London not Manchester, it'll get interesting.

I'm not sure how close the nearest heliport is to the GMEX. I know Barton Airfield where most of the helicopters for the city start off, is a good 25mins (even with police escort) from the GMEX. Add 30 mins flying time and 30 mins in Central London and you are still looking at probably 1hr 30mins best case.

I'm not sure even the Tory Party can charter a fleet of Helicopters for all their MPs.

Do you think the Opposition are going to play nice James? Really?

Oh, sit down, you embarrassing little person. That really made me snort.

By the way, we could hear almost nothing at the Sipreme Court. There wasn't a microphone & speakers for the crowd (see, no deep state; this isn't an organised plot by a cunning group) to hear Cherry, Maugham, Miller, et al speaking.

So I was relying on a mix of MN and other people's feeds - and then relating it on to others.

It was quite a mix of technological age & town crier!

You should have a read of the thread in Chat. Wowzers.

Oooohhhh?

Where!

(I need to do shit for the rest of the afternoon though).

I've noticed that Bercow is wearing the same tie that he wore on the night that Parliament wasn't prorogued. I wonder if that is deliberate

Symbolism is important. Symbols evoke an emotional response - hence the Brexiteer fascination with flags, fags and ferrets.

And it works. I wrote not long ago about a visceral shiver I had seeing a Nazi flag that had been captured by the Gloucester regiment in WW2 on show in their museum.

Or (for my DF) the fasces of Mussolini. (Which had a layered meaning ...)

Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford
A quick reminder:

Geoffrey Cox assured colleagues in wake of Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament was all legal and above board

The Attorney General told a Cabinet conference call that in his opinion there was 'nothing unlawful and unconstitutional' about it

Theo Usherwood @theousherwood
There has to be a fall guy.

"my rusty undergraduate understanding of public law"

....then perhaps that illustrates why Scottish Law training is better

This is what a Scottish lawyer friend of mine (dual qualified) said yesterday:

This is a conflict of law. At university I was taught in constitutional law lectures that parliamentary sovereignty is a uniquely English legal concept. Because it is not part of our law our judges did what they did, in accordance with long established law. The English courts did likewise. There's the problem. Now if English law to date is right then it exposes the problem that the constitution relies on chaps being good chaps and playing by the established custom and practice. However when you get people in power he care nothing for these customs and realise there are no formal rules to limit their powers then they'll do whatever they like. They could suspend parliament until the next election. And then again after that election. Hell they could suspend it permanently. That's where we stand right now.

And to think we all thought the constitutional law lectures were dry, dusty and of Little practical application.

Should the Opposition manage to get a bunch of key votes timetabled quickly, so Tory MPs have to be in London not Manchester, it'll get interesting.

Won't pairing be in effect ?

The Attorney General told a Cabinet conference call that in his opinion there was 'nothing unlawful and unconstitutional' about it

The cop get out is that as SCOTUK said, this is unprecedented, so therefore wasn't anticipated. Although remind me that I don't want Geoffrey Cox defending me for anything in court. He might get lost.

I think the main thing now is to avoid a GE.

I wouldn't be surprised if Corbyn called for a GE.

I am praying he returns to that pre-Conference flash of looking like a serious politician.

Here RTB

Mind you, all the Leavers posting there could be aliases of grass
🤔 they mostly repeat the exact same bollocks, including the "Hale as a witch" thing (now sadly deleted by MNHQ).

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a3700212-Boris-Js-suspension-of-Parliament-ruled-unlawful?

How is it that parliament can seize control of the executive body of government to overturn a referendum and this not be a matter for the courts?

DGR did you get a response as to the most supreme court in the land yet

Note that the Supreme Court is not a Royal law court - it does not bear the Royal coat of arms. It is therefore an EU institution - put in place to help to protect and preserve the EU's iron fist of governance of this country.

This is not true.

If it was the case, then the Government would not have defended it.

Mr Keen, was not too keen after all.

Man charged with upholding the independance of the Courts and defending the Rule of Law:

Robert Buckland QC MP @RobertBuckland
As the PM says, we will respect the SC’s judgment, the judicial process and Rule of Law, even though the Gov’t respectfully disagrees with the Court’s decision. The Gov’t will deliver Brexit on 31st Oct, levelling up our education system, investing in the NHS and cutting crime.

nazir afzal @nazirafzal
You can’t “respectfully disagree” with the unanimous judgment of the @UKSupremeCourt

That is the law of the land

A Lord Chancellor upholds the law

A criminal who “respectfully disagrees” with the law he broke gets sentenced for doing so

It was Geoffrey that did it!

Cry the babies in power.