Please, someone tell us who’s in charge...
JUST who is running the country? That was the question the listeners to my weekday breakfast show were set after that regrettable, but so predictable, decision from the Supreme Court that left the Prime Minister packing less punch than a freshly neutered tabby cat.
Time to dispel any shred of doubt here. The establishment will stop at nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing to prevent Brexit. If you voted Leave your vote is as meaningful and valued as last night’s losing lottery ticket. If you’re inside the loathsome Westminster bubble, the wishes and demand from the electorate count for nothing, as they know so much better than you.
If this undemocratic bunch could find a way to refer the whole sorry shambles to a rigged VAR panel, you have to know they’d jump at the chance.
We are in the pitiful situation that a panel of judges for whom none of us vote can inform a House of Commons Speaker who answers to no one of a decision that can force a nation to remain under the control of an unelected EU Commission. And we’re meant to be the cradle of democracy! What a saddening and maddening joke it all is.
It seems the only person who is actually trying to do what the public has requested is Boris Johnson and as a result of respecting that mandate he finds himself blocked and thwarted at every turn and has to endure global humiliation from that panel of judges, none of whom are names outside of their own homes.
Given the way things have being going for Brexit, the fact that the ruling went against the Government was not a major surprise. However, much of the judges’ justification certainly was.
The Court rested much of its ruling on the Case of Proclamations from as far back as 1610. That was passed to restrict a monarch from Stuart times changing laws simply because he chose to.
However, it was superseded in 1689 by a Bill of Rights that implicitly declared that proceedings in Parliament “ought not be impeached Speaker John Bercow lectures MPS on how their behaviour is seen as “unacceptable” by the country as they opt to shout and shriek at each other during a Prime Ministerial address. Does he have the slightest notion of how the nation views HIM? or questioned in any court”. For more than 300 years that has remain unchanged and unchallenged, until last week with the ruling that must call into question the Supreme Court’s standing alongside the monarchy. The Queen authorised the suspension, but she was over-ruled by the judges, so does that now mean it is they who are sovereign?
Look forward to Lady Hale’s picture appearing on a stamp on a letter coming to you any day soon. Courtesy of this ■
LIKETHE rest of this nation, this column is an unabashed fan of Prince Harry. He endured inestimable pain as a boy when he lost his mother and was forced to walk behind her coffin in the eyes of the world just days later. He did it with great dignity and he has subsequently had the courage to serve this country (and his grandmother) by going to war – and insisting he was not excused from any danger due to his lineage.
He played a bit of naked billiards in Lasvegas (and good luck to him) and enjoyed a party or three. Brilliant.
However, the fact that he has admitted to having sleepless nights about the state of the world is just plain nuts.young people look up to people such as Harry.
Assuming he is justly concerned about the climate changes the world faces, he and many others need to realise they are now actively in the business of frightening the children. Suggesting one of the most recognisable men on the planet cannot get out of bed because of environmental issues is deeply damaging.
In the lifetime of many of you reading this now, we have travelled to and from the Moon on several occasions, mankind has developed medicines from penicillin to the Pill – we can even transplant hearts.
The internet means we have the contents of the world’s biggest library at the flick of a keyboard, we can split the atom, have researched DNA and we can make and take phone calls almost anywhere on the planet.
In this country, some will have gone in their lifetime from living in a home with an outside loo and sharing a tin bath with their family once a week, to enjoying central heating and bountiful hot water.
The conclusion: we have immense, key environmental challenges to face. But we have a pretty impressive track record in a raft of challenges, and we really must stop frightening the children. unaccountable court, the nation finds itself stuck in a ceaseless Groundhog Day with a prime minister pleading for a general election to clear this backlog but who is denied, and a clearly loaded Parliament choosing to ignore the fact more than 80 per cent of people who voted at the last election did so to support parties who promised to respect the referendum result and allow Britain to Brexit.
Did you catch the “Sad’s Army” who raced to pose outside the Supreme Court after the ruling last week? Including “Where’s the Party” Chuka Umunna, fellow political allegiance changer Anna Soubry and dreary, pompous Scot Ian Blackford among their number, they resembled more a bunch on an 18-30 holiday in Magaluf rather than parliamentarians standing outside our most esteemed law court.
Boris Johnson is acknowledged as a huge fan and successful biographer of his hero,winston Churchill.
While there is undoubtedly no shortage of memorable quotes from the life and times of the great man, at this time one stands out: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job,” he once said.
He doesn’t need “the tools”, the Prime Minister just needs a level playing field.
How can they continue to so successfully deny him one?