Brexit

The British Establishment had a field day on Tuesday. With no legal basis whatever for their decision and not a shred of legislation to back them up (with the possible exception of the reference to the Bill of Rights), they got their revenge on the people who voted for Brexit. PM Johnson prorogued Parliament to keep it off his back for a few weeks (all governments and civil services long for the long summer recesses that keep these people out of their hair for a few months). He should not have done so but he used the British convention-based system (as Ronan McCrea describes it in his piece in the Irish Times yesterday British Parliament must use its restored powers) to pull a political stroke. Therein has always lain the strength and the weakness of the British political system. Not too many laws and other types of rules (e.g. constitutions) to keep lawyers busy and rich but a gentleman's agreement about how things are done. Well, there are very few gentlemen left. 

I have become less and less a fan of constitutions as I've got older, particularly as the number of constitutions of one kind or another has ballooned. We have our own Constitution, the EU has one (to which ours but not, reading between the lines, Germany's is subject). Since the 1960s, vested interests here have used our Constitution to get laws declared unconstitutional that were nothing of the sort, laws that were enacted by the Oireachtas and could only be amended by them. Then there is the European Court of Justice, which is not a court in any meaningful sense but an essential part of the European project. The British Supreme Court, however, has gone one better. They have identified breaches to a constitutional order that doesn't exist. Their decision was blatantly political.

There is also an increasing body of international law, which is used to force through grotesque changes in social policy in areas like abortion.

All Governments pull political strokes and are legally entitled to. The fact that they shouldn't is neither here nor there. Politics is an ugly business and the people who choose politics as a way of life, are, by and large, not the sort of people with whom one would want to be seen. Then again, politicians represent We the People and we are flawed too. The alternative to politics (as in laws made by parliaments or directly by the people but never by the courts) is civil war as the British might find out if they're not careful.

Ronan McCrea's piece (but not the headline, which is not his fault) is fair and balanced. Now that the British courts have plunged headlong into the political process they will pay a price. On way of balancing up their demarche of yesterday, however, would be if someone tested the constitutionality (under a system that doesn't have a constitution!) of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. That Act is much more egregious and damaging to British democracy than Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament, which was a crude political stroke but in no way illegal.

Denis Staunton's piece, Victory for Corbyn but Labour splits on full display in Brighton, Irish Times, 23 September, reminds Tory Brexiters that if they want to get Brexit through this year they will need the help of Jeremy Corbyn. He is deemed the devil incarnate by all Tories but he isn't, and he is a skillful politician to boot. He has held the line for the people's vote (i.e. the referendum of 2016) despite very intense pressure from many of his parliamentary party colleagues, who are about as true to Labour values as Boris Johnson is.

Pat Leahy's piece in yesterday's Irish Times Pressure of no deal scenario eases slightly is also good. He is giving the appearance of being back on side (he must have been put under huge pressure from within the Iveagh House Bulletin aka the Irish Times) but by saying everything is on hold in terms of an Irish/EU concession on the backstop until the UK parliamentary arithmetic changes, he is making clear what every supporter of Brexit knows: the EU will do a deal on the backstop when there is a majority in the House of Commons for Brexit. That, however, will have to await a general election.