Parliament is now a bigger farce than a West End show
THE West End’s famous old Whitehall Theatre used to present the funniest farces ever seen in London. But not even their comic genius could match what is going on at Westminster at the moment.
The stage writers would not have dared to dream up such unlikely stories as have been produced in and around Parliament over the last couple of weeks.
First of all, the Prime Minister appears to have upset the entire judicial system with his now widely condemned attempt to shut down Parliament for a period, in the hope that he could get Brexit through. This proved to be a disaster, and so Johnson - who is still determined to achieve Brexit by the end of October, do or die - had to think of some other way of achieving his ambition.
But even his fertile mind failed to arrive at any kind of solution, except repeated threats that Britain would go ahead, rain or shine, whatever Brussels said.
But now we have a rather bizarre situation where opposition parties led by the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon (who is not even an MP), with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the helm joined forces in a bid to stop a no deal exit.
Whether this further meddling with the constitution would work is yet to be seen, but it looks more and more as though Britain may be forced to accept a no deal solution if the Prime Minister is to keep his word.
Whoever thought that Brexit, after the Referendum, would finish up like this? But MPs who opposed the result of the Referendum are guilty, in the opinion of many people, of dishonesty.
When Parliament set up the Referendum, MPs agreed to abide by the result whatever it was. Now, many of them are shamelessly trying to avoid doing that, a dishonourable and underhand way to handle these matters.
As we wake up each morning, we wonder what next will enter the convoluted minds of some politicians, who are determined to get their way come hell or high water.
The failure of the Prime Minister to succeed in his bid to close down Parliament has led to the most bizarre situation imaginable, when you consider the effect it has had on the Conservative party conference now taking place in Manchester.
Johnson is now expected to be in two places at once this week - one of them answering questions in the House of Commons, and the other at Manchester making his first major conference address.
No doubt the situation will be resolved but the signs are that it will be a pretty odd conference. Johnson has tried to widen its scope by offering huge amounts of money to the NHS, but the fact remains that Brexit will remain top of the agenda at Manchester, whatever some Tory members would like to think.
Perhaps next time Johnson decides on something as drastic as closing down Parliament without seeking proper advice, he will think again. This farce has already cost the British taxpayer millions of pounds.
Johnson should be told to keep his wallet firmly zipped up before he lets loose any more public cash.