The interesting and scary part is that (if you are a fan of him / Brexit at any cost) Johnson is not defying parliament but simply "preparing his bold programme for government" to be delivered in a Queen's Speach a couple of weeks before Brexit date.<p>The dual narrative of politics continues, and both sides of the equation literally experience a different universe it would seem.
If this had happened in a second or third world country, we would have called it a coup. A government suspending parliament is suspending the checks and balances. It is usurping all powers. As all other usurpers, Johnson cites the will of the people.<p>Yes, for now it is just temporary. In 49, Caesar also started with a temporary dictatorship: 11 days. Then in 48 one year. Then in 47 10 years. Then in 44 for life. then he was killed but the Roman republic and its sort of democracy died with him.<p>Johnson is blocking elected members of parliament from asserting their influence on the most important decisions since WWII.<p>The mother of all parliaments...
This is where a written constitution is super important. The UK (or England & Wales to be specific) doesn't have one, and relies on 'constitutional conventions' (which needless to say shift in interpretation by whoever is in government).<p>The lack of a written constitution has allowed certain things like the UK equivalent of the 5th Amendment (invoking the right of silence when questioned in a criminal proceeding does not invoke an appearance of guilt that can be told to the jury) disappear under Tony Blair.
On one hand, I think that Boris is flexing he power to prove to [the rest of] Europe that he is willing to take a hard Brexit if the EU is unwilling to negotiate (you can't negotiate unless you're willing to walk away).<p>On the other hand... This is a complete disaster. If parliament can't function, what hope does the rest of the country have? I think the exchange rate is the best metric on how well Brexit is going. The sad irony is that Brexit was meant to give the UK sovereignty (rule Britania and all that...), but crashing the economy has made everything cheaper for foreign investors. The UK is no longer united metaphorically and literally.<p>Brexit has been a death march from the get-go.
There's conflicting reports on this, because this is roughly the time that in "normal" operation that it would be suspended for conference season and then re-opened via the Queen's Speech.<p>The problem is these are not normal times, and the Parliamentary majority is trying to regain control of the legislative timetable but without bringing down the government.
So the plan is for Parliament to be suspended between 10th September and 14th October.<p>But they were already due a recess between 13th September and 8th October for their yearly jolly at the seaside[1].<p>Having just returned from their summer recess between 20th July and 5th September.<p>[1]:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_conference_season" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_conference_season</a>
So now the only way out of a clearly anti-democratic move to silence a semi-democratic parliament, put in place by a Prime-Minister that was not directly elected, is by having a non-elected head of state putting a stop to it.<p>Good heavens.
Closer to crashing out. This will obviously weaken the EU which will be viewed as a positive outcome by other major players: Russia, China and (bizzarley) US.
Do we know the queen's stance on Brexit? It would be hilariously ironic if her response turns out be something along the lines of <i>"well I'm supposed to stay out of politics, but you kind of forced my hand in telling the world in how horribly stupid I think this entire thing is"</i>
I had always assumed that the sane position was Remain. But I was talking to a friend from the UK, and he said that the status quo was not an option. The EU was going to move (already starting to move, in fact) toward tighter integration, so the only options were "Leave" or "even more EU". Faced with that choice, there were reasonable people who wanted out.
Quoting HN submission guidelines:<p>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. [...] If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
Putting the substance of the politics aside, I wonder why all this feels coordinated.<p>I mean Trump, Brexit, Putin, Erdoğan, The guy in Brazil, in Hungary - all seem to act like a part of a bigger organization.<p>I don’t really believe that there’s a grand conspiracy but I am fascinated how unrelated organizations act in resonance.<p>It’s not even limited to big politics, suddenly right wing bigotry is sexy. “Lone wolfs” attack women, minorities or pretty much any outliers, movements emerge as ways to combat vegans, girls that don’t behave in the desired ways etc.