Boris Johnson’s ultimate deceit

The following is an excerpt from an editorial in The New York Times:

It is one of the ironies of the rise of authoritarian movements in Western democracies that politicians who claim to be strengthening the foundations of democracy work so assiduously to undermine those foundations. So it was especially satisfying when Britain’s Supreme Court soundly and unanimously slapped down Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s brazen attempt at an end-run around Parliament to pull Britain out of the European Union. The intervention of Britain’s highest court in the tradition-encrusted world of British politics was extraordinary. (In the) court’s judgment Johnson’s move to suspend Parliament was “unlawful, void and of no effect.”

Determined to get Britain out of the EU with or without a deal, (Johnson) set about sidelining Parliament. The gimmick was to ask Queen Elizabeth II to “prorogue,” or suspend, Parliament, purportedly to prepare for the new prime minister’s agenda, but in fact to severely curtail the time available to debate Brexit before the current deadline for a deal, Oct. 31.

The brazen misuse of the device, including the lies fed to the Queen that the reason for shutting Parliament down was to prepare for the start of a new legislative agenda, drew vehement denunciations. Opponents of the measure quickly sued in Scotland and England, bringing the case before the Supreme Court.

The ruling does not resolve Brexit, and the deadline for Britain to drop out, even without a deal, still looms threateningly on the horizon.