Your Proroguingofparliament comesasnosurprise
Dear editor, Wednesday’s announcement on the proroguing of the Westminster parliament comes as no surprise to those of us who are aware of what a slippery business Toryism is.
They come no more slippery than Lucrezia Boris and last week he finally showed his contempt for democracy by following in the shadow of Charles I.
Tories - master manipulators – have used every tortuous and Machiavellian method available, in this Trumpian Age of Unreason to thwart the wishes of parliament.
They started by having a two-year session instead of the usual one, this to allow Theresa May to get her great repeal bill and associated legislation through the Commons.
Now, under the pretext of needing a new legislative agenda, Johnson has decided on this prorogation which, in effect, is not so much a suspension, but a ‘temporary dissolution’ to neutralise the (supposedly) sovereign parliament and rule by (in practice) Tory government collective decree.
Boris may blether and mutter about the reasons for his action, but none of his claims are true: he claims he wants to introduce a fresh agenda – he needs only introduce whatever bill he wishes, as he wishes, when he wishes, there is no need for a Queen’s speech to do it.
If, after the long run of the present session, there is a need to have a prorogation, it could easily have waited that extra few weeks till after Brexit.
There is nothing time-sensitive at the moment; nothing, that is, except a crash-out Brexit – and that is what this deviousness is all about.
No doubt here in Scotland the local collaborators with London rule will be spinning this situation like a tribe of demented dervishes, trying to persuade us that this is somehow advantageous to Scotland.
However, I do believe people are realising that with Brexit (as with the 2014 independence referendum) we have been lied to by the London ruling class and their cohorts.
In Scotland, of course, prorogation of democracy, itself, has been in effect since the last referendum: we were promised by unionists (as part of the UK’s ‘family of nations’) in 2014 that we would be out of the EU as a newly independent country (unproven), but if we stayed in the UK we would stay in the EU. They lied. The line is now the ‘whole UK’ voted out, so Scotland voting to stay in doesn’t count – bang goes the happy families game.
Overall, Scotland has been mostly ignored and when not, has been treated as a nuisance protruding from the side-lines.
Boris was famous for lying about the EU and straight bananas.
Bananas are the same shape they always were.
I understand Boris’s connection with bananas – it is a metaphor for his intentions – his idea of straightening the UK out is to make it a banana republic.
Last week we took the first step in that direction.
Let us hope that Mr Speaker, John Bercow – an excellent chap (despite coming from the Tory benches) – stands firm against this constitutional coup and ensures time is made for proper debate on Brexit.
Thomas Burgess St Catherine’s Square Perth