CALM DOWN DEARS, THIS ISN’T A COUP

TO JUDGE by the reaction to Boris Johnson’ s suspension of Parliament, you would think he had mounted a coup d’état, and held a pistol to the head of Her Majesty the Queen.

Scottish Nationalist leader Nicola Sturgeon called him a ‘tin-pot dictator’. Commons Speaker John Bercow interrupted his holidays to declare a ‘constitutional outrage’ had taken place, while Tory backbench rebel Dominic Grieve used the same phrase. Jeremy Corbyn accused Boris of being ‘reckless’.

All over the country, Remainer politicians are shuddering and cursing, and dabbing their fevered brows. They are joined by a bevy of 25 querulous Anglican bishops, who have penned a letter that suggests they regard No Deal as an unchristian outcome.

The figure of Charles I is regularly dusted off, with the Prime Minister’s agitated critics recalling that the unhappy King’s head was cut off in 1649. And he prorogued Parliament in 1629 for 11 years. Boris — be warned.

Amid all this free-wheeling hysteria I hate to point out that Parliament is being deprived of only five or six days of sittings before reconvening on October 14. The reason is that it was anyway not due to sit in the second half of September and the first part of October because of party political conferences.

Five or six days. It doesn’t seem a lot. If the PM had prorogued Parliament for a lengthy period until after October 31 — the day when we are supposed under existing law to leave the EU — that would have been a bad thing, as I suggested in these pages not long ago.

BUT it is ridiculous to represent yesterday’s announcement as an assault on the British constitution and the rule of law. In more ways than one, this Brexit business is driving the whole country bonkers.

I do admit to registering a qualm or two that Boris Johnson is leaving the Commons less scope to exercise its democratic rights and come up with alternative proposals. But only a qualm or two. No more. Let me explain why.

In the first place, MPs have had three years to agree a plan and have not yet done so. They’ve debated and voted and argued for thousands of hours without being able to settle on a resolution which commands majority support.

The second reason I’m not going to join a march in favour of MPs’ rights is that under the new arrangements they will still have plenty of opportunity to upset Mr Johnson’s applecart — if they are able to come up with a common strategy, which remains somewhat doubtful.

When the Commons reassembles next Tuesday, the outraged Mr Bercow and the distraught Mr Grieve and the disgruntled Philip Hammond (until recently Chancellor of the Exchequer) will re- double their efforts to force the Prime Minister to postpone, or reverse, Brexit.

Whether they will succeed is another matter because they may not have the numbers, and there are as many shades of Remainer opinion as there used to be varieties of Heinz. But they’ll have their chance next

week and the beginning of the following week, and after October 14.

And Jeremy Corbyn ( who disgracefully attempted to drag the poor Queen into this mess by demanding a meeting with her) can also have a shot and call a motion of No Confidence in the Government next week, or when the Commons returns.

I wonder whether he will, though, because Labour is floundering in the polls, and would be unlikely to flourish in the election that would inevitably follow such a motion being passed.

By the way, let me point out in a spirit of even-handedness that Remainers howling about the Prime Minister’s unconstitutional behaviour are often the same people who have been preparing to bend, twist and otherwise ignore constitutional precedent by seizing power from the Government so that they can pack Boris Johnson off to Brussels to beg an extension.

It was the spectacle of scheming Remainers on Tuesday, brewing up their latest plans to trip him up, that must have finally made up his mind to undertake some modest proroguing.

So for all these reasons, I am keeping my qualms about this alleged democratic ‘outrage’ — a word as overused by Remainers as is ‘ catastrophic’ in relation to No Deal — very firmly under control.

But there is another powerful reason for gently applauding what the Prime Minister has done. Although the financial markets cannot see it (the pound sagged a little yesterday), suspending Parliament should make a deal more likely. For unless Remainer MPs succeed in their power-grab when the Commons briefly returns next week, the Government will have a clear run of just over four weeks during which it cannot be undermined by parliamentary shenanigans.

EU leaders and bureaucrats will no longer be able to vest their hopes in the idea that MPs are going to rescue them from the need to negotiate with No 10 over the Irish backstop.

Over the past week there have been indications, particularly from Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, that the once- sacrosanct Withdrawal Agreement can at least be partly revisited.

AND yet while Brussels believed there was a good chance that MPs would pull the rug from under Mr Johnson, there was no very strong reason for restarting serious negotiations.

As I’ve argued, the Commons has not been irrevocably sidelined. But inasmuch as Remainer MPs and their incessant and often destructive plotting are absent from the battlefield during the next few weeks, so Boris Johnson will be able to enter unfettered talks with Brussels.

Who knows, when the Queen’s Speech is read out on October 14 to signal the beginning of a new session and the unveiling of the Government’s legislative

programme, there could be the outline of an agreement between the Government and the EU.

At least there is a chance this will be so. And if the price that has to be paid is the loss of five or six days of Commons’ sittings, I don’t think very many people will shed copious tears, or buy the hysterical claptrap about our constitution being turned upside-down.

Nor, while we are on the subject, should they be taken in by Remainer caterwauling about a supposed onslaught on democracy. Whatever small sliver of democratic accountability is being momentarily sacrificed pales into insignificance compared with the efforts of some Remainer MPs to undo the result of the referendum.

Listen, for example, to the leader of the Lib Dems, Jo Swinson, who recently said she will never accept Brexit, even if the public were to vote for it again in a People’s Vote. That is the voice of bigotry and extremism, not democracy.

The truth is that Boris Johnson’s proposal is modest and well-judged. I believe it edges us a little closer to a satisfactory agreement with Brussels, and therefore makes No Deal less probable.

Will he succeed, or will he be consumed in the fires of Remainer vengeance? I obviously hope not, but I can’t be sure. He is taking on almost the entire British Establishment, bishops included, in a courageous way.

What I am convinced of is that he’s as democratic as the next person and more democratic than most, and that all this talk of constitutional outrage is no more than self- serving Remainer tosh.