Daily Mail, Friday, August 30, 2019 Page 15TERICAL!
ister tell an Old Etonian Cabinet
minister to go up and see the
Queen in a Scottish castle to shut
down Parliament.’POLLY TOYNBEE, Guardian
columnist: ‘A constitution that
relied on gentlemanly
governments’ willingness to
bow to Parliament has
evaporated, blown away now
it’s led by a man who doesn’t
give a damn for
parliamentary sovereignty:
taking back control is for him
alone. He is ready to destroy
anything that threatens
his ambition.’A.C. GRAYLING, philosopher:
‘The people convicted of crimes in
the 2016 Leave campaign are now
on Downing Street committing
constitutional crimes. As former
Civil Service head Lord Kerslake
in effect suggests, the Civil Service
should go on strike. A general
strike might be necessary to
#BlockTheCoup.’GARY LINEKER, ex-
footballer and TV
presenter: ‘The
Government’s
argument that
they’re doing this
for democracy is
remarkably
undemocratic.’BILLY BRAGG,
singer: ‘More proof
that Johnson will go to
any lengths to avoid
debating his Brexit plans
because to do so would
merely highlight his vacu-
ity. The last person who
tried to suspend parliament
was Charles I and we know
what happened to him.’DAVID WALLIAMS, actor: ‘The
only thing necessary for the
triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing’ —
Edmund Burke.GUY VERHOFSTADT, EU Brexit
coordinator: ‘Taking Back Control
has never looked so sinister. As a
fellow parliamentarian, mysolidarity with those fighting for
their voices to be heard. Suppress-
ing debate on profound choices is
unlikely to help deliver a stable
future EU-UK relationship.’ANDREW ADONIS, Labour
peer: ‘Brexit is a revolution
weakening and undermining
our core national institutions
one by one. Yesterday it was
the monarchy,
commandeered by Johnson
to undermine Parliament.
This will continue until Brexit
is stopped.’ALAN RUSBRIDGER, former
Guardian editor: ‘This is a full
scale revolution by Dominic
Cummings [the PM’s senior
adviser], who literally holds
Parliament in contempt.’GAVIN ESLER, former BBC
journalist: ‘Either we have
parliamentary sovereignty or
we have dictatorship by a
Prime Minister not elected by
the British people.’CHARLIE BROOKER, author and
TV presenter: ‘Liars. Vandals.’DEBORAH MEADEN, Dragons’
Den ‘investor’ and
businesswoman: ‘So they
suspend Parliament and
then shut the doors on
communication. People, this
is a coup.’RICHARD DAWKINS, biologist:
‘Whatever else “Take back
control” meant, it surely did not
mean a coup d’état to wrest con-
trol from Parliament and hand it
over to a dictator.’ARMANDO IANNUCCI, creator
of TV’s In The Thick Of It: ‘In
this exceptional time,
protests should be more than
about venting frustration;
they need to be effective.
Those who’ve undermined
our democracy won’t take
any notice of protests outside
Parliament. They will, though,
if they were outside
Buckingham Palace.’TONY BLAIR
HE SAYS: ‘No Deal Brexit
is an act of
unforgivable political
and constitutional
vandalism.’
This is a bit rich coming
from the man who, as
PM, misled Parliament
by overstating the
threat posed by
Saddam Hussein in
order to get approval
to invade Iraq ‘illegally’
in 2003.CAROLINE LUCAS
THE Green Party’s only MP
wrote to Johnson saying:
‘Your utter disregard for
basic democratic standards,
the sovereignty of Parliament
and the rights of voters to
representation is deeply
insulting to — and worrying
for — every UK resident.’
Just days earlier, she offered
to helicopter in a cabal of
MPs of her choosing to run
the country. She said: ‘We
need an emergency Cabinet
and I believe this should be a
Cabinet of women.’Howls of outrage:
(clockwise from
top left): Gina
Miller, Paloma
Faith, John
Simpson, Gary
Lineker, James
O’Brien, Armando
Iannucci, Paul
Mason and
Deborah MeadenDOMINIC GRIEVE
DISSIDENT Tory MP Grieve claims prorogation is
‘tantamount to a coup’. Yet he has planned to take
control of Parliament himself. In January, he
proposed that the Commons seized control of the
Government’s order paper, which lists the
business of Parliament, on one day a week, during
which it could debate motions.KEN CLARKE
THE 79-year-old Tory MP has vowed to stage a
revolt to stop Britain crashing out of the EU. Yet
last week, he welcomed an unconstitutional
suggestion that he might become caretaker prime
minister if it was ‘the only way in which the plain
majority in Commons that is opposed to a No Deal
exit’ could find a way forward.LORD (MICHAEL)
HESELTINE
THE fervently pro-EU
former deputy PM
raged: ‘The
Government’s decision is
a constitutional outrage.
I hope that every
member of parliament,
in feeling this
humiliation, will use
every legal and
constitutional weapon
to obstruct a
government proposingto force on the British
people a historic change
for which they have long
since lost any mandate.’
In 1976 he was
reprimanded for
breaking parliamentary
protocol by picking up
the ceremonial mace in
the Commons and
swinging the symbol of
royal authority in fury
after the Labour
government passed a
Bill he’d opposed.ister tell an Old Etonian Cabinet solidarity with those fighting forOur ancestors fought with so much courage
and sacrifice for democracy: from Peterloo
to the Chartists, from the suffragettes to
those who fought Nazi hordes. We cannot
let our unelected Prime Minister
trash it. #StopTheCoup
Owen Jones @O
wenJones^84