This coup will simply add to our Brexit agony

OVER the next three days our Parliamentary democracy will enter dark and truly perilous waters.

Encouraged by a vain and deeply biased Speaker, MPs have mounted a coup against the Government. This week they plan to cement it.

For centuries, Parliament’s primary function has been to hold the Government to account and scrutinise legislation it brings forward.

This ‘separation of powers’ is a cornerstone of our constitution. It prevents the concentration of authority in too few hands and provides the checks and balances every liberal democracy requires.

So the Mail has this question. If MPs seize control of the legislative programme, who is left to hold them to account?

Today, they will try to find a majority for an alternative to the withdrawal agreement negotiated by Theresa May (despite having failed to do so in no fewer than eight separate votes last week).

If they can coalesce around, say, keeping Britain in a permanent customs union, they will move on Wednesday to enshrine that option in law – theoretically compelling the Government to accept it and try to sell it to the EU.

So here’s another question. How on earth could Theresa May possibly be expected to champion staying in the customs union, when it would repudiate one of her most fundamental Brexit ‘red lines’?

Many individuals and self-appointed cliques share the blame for this appalling constitutional vandalism. But top of the heap is Speaker John Bercow.

He must have known it was an affront to our democratic system and should have blocked it, as his clerks advised him to.

But his visceral opposition to Brexit (let’s not forget that ‘B******s to Brexit’ sticker on his family car) has collapsed his claims to being an even-handed and honest broker. His partiality highlights the enormous power the Speaker has – and how easily it can be abused.

It’s possible of course that MPs will again find no majority for any of the proposals set before them. If so, their inglorious revolution will be holed below the water line. But still nothing will have been solved.

With a Tory leadership contest in the offing, the probability of a long delay in implementing Article 50, the default possibility of No Deal and, ultimately, a general election, don’t expect any peace in the foreseeable future.

For the long-suffering public, there’s no end in sight to the Brexit agony.