The hysteria over proroguing Parliament is woefully unjustified

We must wake up to the reality that MPs don’t just want to stop a No Deal Brexit – they want to stop Brexit altogether.

Well Boris Johnson did it – and a lot earlier than anyone, especially MPs, were expecting. Parliament will now be suspended in early September and will reconvene on the fourteenth of October for a new Queen’s Speech and legislative agenda, that will be aimed at making the Conservatives ready for a November election.

This news was met with delight from the Brexiteer side and contempt and hysteria from the Remain side. Yet more division, yet more bitterness – but this time none of it is justified. In truth, proroguing Parliament is a common constitutional mechanism that occurs every year during certain periods. During this time political parties will be breaking for the conference season so a suspension at this hour was to be expected in hindsight.

That being said, we all know why the outrage has arisen: this will make the Prime Minister’s plan to take Britain out of the European Union a lot easier. It is no secret that leagues of MPs and the speaker himself, who has totally abandoned constitutional precedent numerous times (he’s a man who sees ‘standing up for Parliament’ as thwarting the executive), were going to take whatever route possible to stop a No Deal Brexit.

First they proposed a national unity government – which is a constitutional grey area – and then they proposed forcing another Article 50 extension by creating what has come to be known as ‘Letwin days’ where MPs cease control of the Parliamentary order paper to combat the government. Boris Johnson has taken away another slice of the already meager parliamentary time remaining for rebel MPs to stop us leaving without a Withdrawal Agreement.

However, we must wake up to the reality that MPs don’t just want to stop a No Deal Brexit – they want to stop Brexit altogether.

They’ve already shot down the Withdrawal Agreement three times, advocated a ‘People’s Vote’ and Labour’s policy has become to secure an extremely close customs union like deal and then go on to campaign against their own policy in another referendum! The mandate for Leave is strong, having been made clear in 2016, 2017 and 2019 (which I detailed in my previous works) so for MPs, who voted the Article 50 act and Withdrawal act into law, to then declare they won’t let us leave, is an affront to democracy in itself. Suspending Parliament for a rather short period compared to other instances is not. In fact it only takes six sitting days away from MPs who so far have enjoyed a three years session which is outrageously long.

They’ve had all the time in the world to come to a solution and they have failed to do so (seen numerous times in the laughable ‘indicative votes’ allowed by the last government). With a mandate to leave clear, Parliament has no further role to fill. That aside, Brexiteers too may be misguided in their optimism at Boris Johnson’s latest move. In his letter to MPs, the Prime Minister indicated that votes would be called on proposals that he will attempt to secure at the next European Council. That could potentially mean that he will bring the deal, however modified, to the House of Commons as Theresa May did.

With MPs panicked about a No Deal exit, Tory rebels and a plethora of Labour MPs could help the Prime Minister pass a deal and avoid a clean break exit. This is unlikely but it is something that must be kept in mind as the tumultuous weeks ahead get underway.

That aside the proroguing of parliament, which John Major himself exercised for a longer period, strikes at the heart of a debate about democracy that has plagued intellectuals for generations. A YouGov poll showed that the public view their MPs as public servants there to carry out their will whereas MPs feel they should be able to act with total autonomy, for they are the elites that know better than their constituents and will decide themselves how to act in their interests.

This poll was somewhat overlooked, probably because of the Brexit drama dominating the headlines, but it was very illuminating. It makes me think of the founding father of conservatism Edmund Burke who declared himself proudly independent of the people’s views, and went on to be politically cast out in 1780. Burke said he wished  ‘to resist the desires of his constituents when his judgment assured him they were wrong’. As much as I laud Burke for his fantastic ideas that gave life to conservatism as an intellectual movement, it is clear his elitism is a terrible manifestation of human power and one I strongly connote with the antics of MPs who are so horrified by the latest news striking the headlines.

I am no majoritarian when larger issues are concerned but something with a mandate as strong of Brexit deserves to be delivered upon, and it’s hide time Parliament stepped aside. They’ve had their time and they failed us, roll on October thirty-first – it’s been a long time coming.