Section:GDN 1J PaGe:1 Edition Date:190831 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 30/8/2019 17:56 cYanmaGentaYellowbla

A

nd so one of the longest running

dramas in British political history

reaches yet another act. Some of the

cast are locked into much the same

roles as ever: Gina Miller is once again

striding off to the courts ; the great

urban remain armies are turning out

with their home made placards, while

the People’s Vote campaign sends out emails signed

by Michael Heseltine; front-rank Tory politicians are

apparently prepared to trade in whatever faint principles

they once claimed to hold dear, in the hope of holding

their party together, whatever the price.

Other characters seem to be changing. Jeremy Corbyn

and his aides may have belatedly discovered the art of

reaching out to people beyond their inner circle. Militant

Labourites who have mostly aff ected indiff erence about

Brexit and told us that parliament was a rat’s nest of

ruling class interests stuff ed full of centrists are suddenly

barging their way to the front, suddenly convinced

that the traditions of representative democracy might

actually be worth defending.

That this is a moment of huge importance and Boris

Johnson’s suspension of parliament is outrageous

are beyond doubt. But in the resulting noise about an

alleged coup and the need to take to the streets, too

much of the country remains uninterested, and plenty

of other people have concluded that Johnson has

done the right thing. Listen to the voices my Guardian

colleague Ben Quinn heard this week in the Brexit-

supporting constituency of Thurrock: “I’ll tell you what’s

undemocratic: not fi nally delivering on what the people

voted for back in 2016 ... the MPs need to deliver what the

people voted for, and if he thinks that he can do it this

way then people are not really going to care.” On Friday,

I had a conversation with a leave-voting friend who said

that both sides of the Brexit argument had long since

tumbled into farce and perhaps the referendum should

never have happened, but he seemed prepared to give

the prime minister the benefi t of the doubt. “At least he’s

getting stuff done,” he said. “That’s the thing.”

These are the people at the centre of Johnson’s

thoughts – and for him, trampling over some of the most

basic tenets of democracy comes easy. To believe in the

sanctity of parliament and understand the dangers of the

current moment involves a certain mixture of humility,

deference and aversion to danger – precisely the qualities

that Eton, Oxford and an apparently deep

belief in his own brilliance and the idea of

politics as a mere game were always going

The Saj cowers as Cummings ‘gets ready’ for the fi nal act Marina Hyde, page 3

Shop less, live more: the recipe for a pain-free, green future Gaby Hinsliff , page 4

Motherhood and public life: it’s still a battle Libby Brooks, page 5

The Guardian

ILLUSTRATION:

MATT KENYON

Saturday 31 August 2019



John

Harris

Parliament is

being bullied.

But millions

just don’t care

Opinion

and ideas

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