 |
| Queen Elizabeth II approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's advice to cut down the number of days MPs will meet before Brexit, set for October 31© POOL/AFP Victoria Jones |
Queen Elizabeth II was left exposed Tuesday to suggestions that Boris Johnson used her as a political pawn by having her approve a suspension of parliament that the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled broke the law.
Constitutional
experts say the 93-year-old head of state had no choice but to give royal
assent to Johnson’s request to slash the number of days parliament meets before
Britain is due to leave the European Union on October 31.
Britain has
functioned for centuries as a constitutional monarchy in which the sovereign
can only act on the prime minister’s advice.
In other
words: the monarch has authority in name only while her prime minister wields
the political power that counts.
“It’s the
oldest rule in the constitution,” Durham University constitutional expert
Robert Craig said.
Yet the
five-week suspension she signed off on looked suspiciously long from the start.
The court noted Tuesday that most prorogations last for a matter of just days.
These are
required when parliament’s session draws to an end and the prime minister
prepares to set out the agenda for the year ahead.
And the one
Johnson had asked for came in the politically-explosive run-up to Britain’s
scheduled withdrawal from the European Union on October 31.
“This is a
hideous moment for the palace,” BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond wrote.
It also
raises even bigger questions as Brexit day nears and the debate over the
monarch’s role in UK politics rumbles on.
“For
decades, for centuries, (Britain’s constitutional monarchy) has been governed
by convention and precedent, and an unspoken agreement not to push things too
far,” Dymond said.
“Boris
Johnson blew that apart.”
Breaking
conventions
University
of Liverpool law professor Mike Gordon speculated before the ruling that
Johnson’s “government might advise the queen not to give the royal assent” to
the parliamentary law ruling out the possibility of Britain’s crash exit from
the EU.
“And at
that point we’ll be in difficult constitutional territory,” said Gordon.
“The
convention she gives the royal assent to anything parliament will pass clashes
with the convention she acts on ministerial advice.”
The last
monarch to refuse royal assent — signing a bill into law — was queen Anne in
1708.
But much of
what has been happening in UK politics has not been recorded in history for
centuries.
It is hard
to imagine anyone better-versed in the sovereign’s duties than Britain’s
longest-serving monarch — on the throne since 1952 and holding a special place
in most Britons’ hearts.
The
sovereign is usually only approached by ministers when their attempts to sort
out the various political debates among themselves all fail.
The closest
this queen has come to being drawn into politics was during the 1975
constitutional crisis in Australia.
Her
governor-general John Kerr had sacked Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam
and the queen refused to get involved in the political furore that followed.
Former
British prime minister John Major said he hoped the queen is spared any more
possible blushes by Johnson.
“No prime
minister must ever treat the monarch or parliament in this way again,” Major
said.
UK Judge Brenda Hale delivered the UK Supreme Court's damning verdict against Boris Johnson with a huge glittery spider brooch.— AFP news agency (@AFP) 24 september 2019
The jewellery swiftly obtained its own Twitter account while a black t-shirt with a spider design has started selling on eBayhttps://t.co/gnAonFmsyQ
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.