I was saying yesterday, how Johnson's and Cumming's week could not have gone worse.
Well, it did.
Late Saturday night, the Sunday Times released pictures of their front page, and it revealed that Amber Rudd, the Work and Pensions minister, was resigning as a minister and the Conservative Party Whip.
Her letter was damning:
"The Government is expending a lot of energy to prepare for 'no deal' but I have not seen the same level of intensity go into our talks with the European Union, who have asked us to present alternative arrangements to the Irish backstop."
And
"I must also address the assault on decency and democracy that took place last week when you sacked 21 talented, loyal One Nation Conservatives.
This short-sighted culling of my colleagues has stripped the party of broad-minded and dedicated Conservative MPs I cannot support this act of political vandalism.
Therefore, it is with regret that I am also surrendering the Conservative whip.
Britain's body politic is under attack from both sides of the ideological debate. I will now play whatever role I can to help return it to a better place."
The Attorney General said he would not resign yet, but the minute the PM does break the law will, there is no doubt he will uphold the law, or resign.
It is possible Johnson may sail "as close the wind" to break the law without actually doing it. But who knows?
It was mooted that the UK might refuse to appoint an EU Commissioner should the UK remain a member after 31st of October, in the hope of being thrown out. But the process of expelling a member state is clear, but lengthy.
This is where democracy is in the UK now, under threat. Under threat of the Prime Minister unwilling to confirm that he will always obey the rule of law. No one is above the law. Nothing would give me more pleasure than seeing Johnson, and Cummings, being taken out of Downing Street in handcuffs.
It might come to that, but who is going to explain this to the electorate, that contrary to what Johnson and May have said, it is Parliament that has been standing up for the people, ensuring their rights are respected and the rule of law observed.
Politics could very well be broken beyond repair now. Certainly the Conservative and Unionist Party will be But Brexit would always destroy it. Moderates are now expelled as the leadership adopt UKIP and now Brexit Party policies. The takeover is complete, they will have become as their enemy.
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I have been thinking about what Boris could in theory do, and have concluded that Labour are wrong to think that avoiding an October Election is a way to see him embarrass himself more and more, even though that is what is happening at the moment. My main worry is that Boris's lawyers will be able to think of something even cleverer than the following:
https://enigmanically.blogspot.com/2019/09/counting-chickens_8.html
My understanding is the law is watertight.
If Johnson refuses he would be subject to the law on misconduct in a public office.
There is no doubt that a PM refusing to obey the law that Parliament passed would be subject to that.
If there is any doubt about how clever Cummings is, the events of the past weeks should have confirmed he isn't as clever as he thinks he is.
Just the corpse of the Conservative Party to fight over now...
It is lovely to see the Conservatives do just what Brexit was created to avoid. But I think that we underestimate the rich. All laws are designed to be watertight. Even so, expensive lawyers are very good at delaying tactics. And Boris only has to delay for two weeks.
Furthermore, this bill has not been properly tested in the Lords. A few bills that are intended to be watertight are found in the Lords to not be. This is not so much about the IQ of Cummings, as the abilities of the lawyers of Brexit's friends.
But if push did come to shove, Boris could always declare a state of emergency.
That is just the sort of thing that turns public-schoolboys like Boris on. So I think that he would be up for doing just that, in the face of an anti-democratic Parliament led by a socialist. As that description indicates, a case can certainly be made for Boris doing it legitimately, in the eyes of the Establishment (especially the Army).
And what we very naturally overlook, moreover, is the possibility that he does that in order to get May's Deal Brexit into law. If Boris does that, then he will pull the Conservative party back together again, as its One Nation hero. And the Conservatives would go on to win a landslide in the next GE. We would have Boris's favourite policies for five years.
Why would Boris not do that? Only because he has not thought of it. But in the next month he or his lawyers, or the lawyers of his friends, will think of it, if he has not already. Could his loud campaigning around the country not be a bluff?
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