It’s a bit like the roof of Parliament’s Westminster Hall: which is held up by a lot of huge, ancient beams all resting on each other.
Like May before him, the Prime Minister risks inflicting deep structural damaged on the United Kingdom in order to escape tactical difficulties.
The eerie atmosphere at this conference is the calm in a party which wants to come back together.
Common law demands we pretend even the most surprising decision has always been the case – but this is fuelling demands for retroactive justice.
“Of course we’ll respect whatever the legal ruling from the Supreme Court is…there are different permutations to what the court may or may not decide.”
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“Dignity, kindness, authority rather than bossiness, and I do believe that those things could be brought to the Chair by a woman.”
Over the past few decades our constitution has been so corroded that the likes of Powell, Benn, Crossman, and Foot would struggle to recognise it.
Remainer lawfare and Brexiteer backlash expose the judiciary to public and press scrutiny in unprecedented and possibly dangerous ways.
The ruling makes it much less clear which side the Supreme Court will take on Tuesday – and drags the judiciary deeper into political controversy.
If Benn and others seek to bind the Prime Minister to the letter of their Surrender Bill, then he should oblige – by following it in exacting detail.
Two different conceptions of it are widely held in the UK, representative and direct. In 2019, they collide.
The Party’s rules – and the history of legal challenges to them – make for grim reading for the former Chancellor.
But the odds of an early general election are shortening as each minute passes.
The Speaker has manipulated of the rules for a political objective, but the Government has been denied the opportunity to respond proportionately in kind.