years on, the coup attempt in progress hasn’t quite been foreseen. This one isn’t targeted at Corbyn. In fact,
he might secretly welcome it.
And far from being remotely British, one of its likelier side effects would be to end the Union. This coup is
entirely, repellently English. Its intent is to circumvent whatever passes for democracy, and impose a no-
deal Brexit on a people and a parliament which by crushing majorities oppose it. This much has been clear
for a while. What was less apparent until today is the methodology that may bring it about.
According to Dominic Cummings, as quoted in the Boris Johnson no-deal house journal (more formally
known as the Sunday Telegraph), it’s already too late to prevent the apocalypse. If the Commons passed a
no-confidence motion after 16 September, Cummings briefed No 10 staffers, Johnson would delay the date
of an ensuing election until after the Halloween deadline.
As for the comforting idea that MPs could still outlaw no deal, Cummings dismisses that as cobblers. “The
only person who can extend Article 50 is the prime minister, and he is not going to do that ...” If
Cummings is betraying the Johnson form book by speaking the literal truth (and he probably is; these guys
really aren’t bluffing), the scale of the crisis is worse than previously imagined.
By Cummings’ account, the Commons would have 13 days, after returning from its well earned rest on 3
September, to pass a no confidence vote. Failing that, the only barrier to the crash-out would be a late EU27
capitulation on the Irish backstop. That might happen, of course. Anything might happen. I could wake up
tomorrow with a six pack and a full head of hair. But the odds against that are about as encouraging as those
against the EU raising the white flag.
All around the world, as a newspaper’s ghoulishly intriguing collation of global journalist opinion confirms,
people are gazing at the fiasco in abject bemusement. Each had always regarded Britain as a paradigm of
democratic stability. None can quite believe the reality revealed crawling about beneath the paving stone
once it was lifted.
Small wonder. However inured to the inherent democratic flaws you thought you’d become, this beggars
belief. A prime minister elected to lead a minority government by 0.2 per cent of the populace is
prosecuting a policy for which – with all respect to Dominic Raab – not a soul ever voted. To do so, he will
ignore the 70-75 percent of the public who oppose it and a House of Commons in which barely a fifth of
MPs support it.
The coup’s intent is to circumvent whatever passes for democracy and
impose a no-deal Brexit on people and a parliament which oppose it
If MPs cannot stop something they and their electors are passionately against, you might have to think
about cancelling that “Parliamentary Sovereignty Restored!” banner for the street party on 1 November. But
can they stop it when that would take a level of focus, organisation and cooperativeness at which the
opponents of no deal have never hinted before?
In order to do so, first, during that 13 days window, they’d need to pass the no-confidence motion.
Factoring in that Tory refuseniks who talked big in the abstract may chicken out of sacrificing their careers,
that isn’t inevitable. But it is the easy bit.
The hard bit follows. The Fixed Term Parliament Act allows 14 days for someone to form a new
government. Since Johnson could only do that by abandoning the no-deal swagger and destroying his
premiership, on paper Corbyn would have the best shot. But Corbyn couldn’t find the requisite numbers