September 1 • 2019 The Mail on Sunday^
Ignore all the
hysteria and
overblown
caricatures. This
is just another
conflict between
those still
scheming to
overturn Brexit
and a PM battling
to do what
voters demanded
three years ago
COMMENT
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hose who create
political hysteria
are playing with
fire. If politicians
claim that democ-
racy is under direct
attack, or suggest
there has been a coup d’etat,
some of their supporters will
take them seriously. If promi-
nent novelists speak of ropes and
lampposts – the language of the
lynch mob – then their readers
may well be influenced by it.
The divisions in this country
are already quite bad enough.
The disagreements are deeper
and more personal than at any
time since the appeasement
crisis of more than 80 years
ago or the suez Crisis of more
than 60 years ago. What good
purpose is served by making
them worse through lurid lan-
guage and wild exaggeration?
People who speak where many
listen, and write where many
read, have a high responsibility.
If they conjure a mob into
being, as several are now try-
ing to do, they may find that
they cannot control it, or per-
suade it to go home. And those
who place themselves at the
head of a mob almost always
end up being chased by the
rabble they have called on to
the streets, or in these times, on
to the internet.The absurd over-reactions of
the past few days are not just
foolish, though they certainly
are foolish. They are also very
dangerous. The Prime Minis-
ter’s suspension of Parliament
during the party conference
period is certainly games-
manship, and open to criticism.
Prorogations, even quite long
ones, are not unusual.
But this one is unusually long
and will create extra difficulties
for opponents of Brexit, though
it still leaves them remarkable
room to make trouble, which no
real dictator or despot would
have permitted.
some on Boris Johnson’s own
side no doubt have reservations
about the suspension. But it is
also a perfectly reasonable
response to openly declared
plans by Remainers to try to
bring down the Government or
obstruct its single most impor-
tant and urgent policy objective.
What sort of Prime Minister
sits and does nothing in the
face of such efforts? It would
be weak and ineffectual for
Mr Johnson to fail to react,
and it would also persuade
the eU leaders that he did not
mean business.
he must act firmly at home
if he is to be able to negotiate
firmly abroad.
our political system, an
organic, flexible constitution
which has grown over centuries
of experience, allows such
behaviour, and generally sur-
vives it. This is why our Gov-
ernment stretches back many
centuries, and our Parliament
dates to the 13th Century, while
France is now on its Fifth
Republic since 1789, punctuated
with failed restorations of the
monarchy and various violent
overthrows of the state.
Parallels with the age of regi-
cide and civil war are overdone.Boris Johnson is neither oliver
Cromwell nor Charles I.
There have been many worse
threats to British liberty over
the past 20 years, most notably
the pro-eU Blair Government’s
use of the terror threat to whit-
tle away at the ancient protec-
tions of habeas corpus by
allowing longer and longer
periods of detention without
charge or trial. And the
europhile Left has often been
very quiet about the increasingrestriction of free speech, espe-
cially on university campuses,
because it has generally affected
Right-wingers.
A more comparable crisis, over
the rejection by the house of
Lords of Lloyd George’s radical
‘People’s Budget’ of 1909, was
eventually resolved two years
later only when the newly
crowned King George V threat-
ened to create regiments of new
peers to overcome the built-in
Tory majority in the upper house.If anything, the clash strength-
ened our democratic institutions,
not least because both sides, in
the end, kept their heads.
The hysterical portrayal of the
suspension as what it is not – as a
forced total shutdown of Parlia-
ment or a lawless breach of the
constitution – is far worse than
the action itself. Those who are
making this claim need to exam-
ine their consciences very hard.
They have created a precedent
which others may one day useagainst them. And the best and
most honest way to judge your
own actions is to ask yourself
how you would feel if your foes
did the same thing to you.
It is also a good idea to check
that your own side (or you) have
not in fact done the same thing,
or something similar, before
getting too exercised. In 1948,
the much-admired Labour Prime
Minister Clement Attlee pro-
rogued Parliament to get around
opposition to legislation aimed
at limiting the powers of the
Lords. By doing so, he created
an extra session of Parliament,
so making it easier to override
angry Tory peers.
And in 1997, John Major
(among Mr Johnson’s noisiest
opponents today) prorogued
Parliament almost three weeks
before it would have been dis-
solved anyway to hold a General
election. Many accused the then
Tory Premier of misusing his
powers to avoid the publication
of a damning report into Tory
MPs taking cash for questions.
so, once the foam and froth
have been scraped away, this is
really just another conflict
between Remainers, still trying
to prevent the referendum from
being obeyed properly, and a
Government pledged to leave
the eU, as instructed by the
voters three years ago.
And the deep politicking,
alas, continues. As The Mail
on sunday reveals today, the
most effective Tory apostle of
the anti-Boris cause, ex-Chan-
cellor Philip hammond, still
appears to be hard at work build-
ing an apparatus to undermine
his leader.Mr hammond’s failure to pre-
pare adequately for a No Deal
exit remains his most distinctive
contribution to modern politics.
It greatly weakened the coun-
try’s ability to push hard for the
best possible deal. had he acted
differently, the whole course
of the negotiations with the eU
might have been different.
Now we find him deep in con-
versation with a leading Tory
fundraiser amid the soft carpets
and tinkling piano music of Le
Caprice, one of London’s most
discreet and costly restaurants,
famous for the squadrons of
Bentleys and Rolls-Royces
purring outside, as their patient
chauffeurs wait for rich and
powerful diners to finish their
important conversations, and
lavish meals, within.
Well, what a contrast to the
urgent desires of ordinary voters
to have their concerns listened to
and their fears acknowledged.
Whatever was being discussed
at Le Caprice, it seems unlikely
that it was a plan to accelerate
and assist a clean, rapid and deci-
sive British departure from the
eU, after which our sovereign
Parliament will at last be free
from the heavy hand of external
interference, and the domination
of a supranational court.
That is what all this is really
about. In the weeks between
now and october 31, these are
the issues. The nation should
not be distracted by overblown
caricatures and hysterical lan-
guage, but continue to steer a
steady course towards its demo-
cratic objective.23
The absurd over-reactions of the past few days
are not just foolish – they are very dangerous
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