He has never recognised the imperative of truth
On this same day (stretching over many time zones) Boris Johnson also had his arse handed to him.
If Boris Johnson does nothing more, his name in history is already inscribed as the man who lied so hard he nearly broke the constitution. He certainly broke the law, as definitively interpreted by the supreme court today. Any leader with respect for the responsibilities that come with high office, and capable of shame, would immediately resign. Nothing in Johnson’s record suggests he is such a person. He clambered to Downing Street over the wreckage of his own former beliefs, ruined friendships and betrayed relationships. He has never recognised the imperative of truth, so takes no instruction from it now.
The new pinnacle of Johnson’s career as a peddler of falsehood is his claim that parliament’s suspension earlier this month was procedural – a conventional legislative reboot ahead of a Queen’s speech to set out a new domestic agenda. No one believed him. His own ministers struggled to hold the line, blurting out the true motive, which was to limit MPs’ control over Brexit. By unanimous verdict, the country’s most senior judges ruled that prorogation did indeed have the effect of “preventing or frustrating” the legislature in pursuit of its constitutional duties – passing laws, holding ministers to account and, crucially, representing the public in Commons debates. The court noted that those functions were uniquely urgent, given the proximity of the Brexit deadline. The stymying deed had to be undone.
I always did wonder how that could be a legitimate thing to do, so I’m glad to learn that it’s not.
I am delighted by this. What makes it all the more telling is that the 11 judges unanimously supported the decision. But I’m far from being optimistic about what will happen henceforth. Both Corbyn and Swinson of the Liberal-Democrats show little but petty intransigence. The country I left 46 years ago has changed into one I do not recognise. ‘O gentile Angleterre, a toi j’escrit’, wrote the poet John Gower centuries ago, a sentiment I have always found extremely moving, but I see little gentility or nobility there now. The fundamental problem in our democracies, it seems to me, is the dogma that the market is a sort of natural phenomenon quite beyond politics, and that therefore social injustice is something we can do nothing about; and the dogma that ‘success’ or its appearance is the only important thing, and that the pursuit of success or its appearance may be undertaken, quite respectably, by any amount of mendacity and the unjust use of power. Witness Boeing’s contemptible but all too predictable response to the crashes of its ill-designed latest aircraft.
Haven’t heard from Latsot since this news broke. Latsot, are you so stunned you can’t speak, or so overjoyed you haven’t sobered up yet? :-)
Or, blink once if Fortran has you bailed up in a corner…
;) I’ve been busy.
Tim Harris sums up my feelings. I’m delighted at the result but I’m not sure yet how much good it will do. Johnson has already stated in public that he will illegally cause Brexit to happen on deadline day whether we have a deal or not, despite the fact that a law was passed specifically to prevent that.
I’m not even sure that this is about leaving the EU any more. Johnson is pulling a Trump by ignoring decency, honesty and even the law. If he gets away with it, the UK will be very much the worse for it on top of the damage done by the idiotic decision to leave the EU.
So right now I’m optimistic that he might just not get away with it after all, but there’s still a long way to go and the opposition leaders seem determined not to help matters.
Yesterday was a bad day all around for criminal white men, with Plácido Domingo retiring from the Met and the Spanish courts ruling that Franco’s remains can be disinterred from El Valle de los Caídos.