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Originally Posted by Damien
Sure but then I am wondering if No 10s thinking here is that by reducing their Parliamentary options they can dare them into calling that VoNC and an election. An election in these circumstances suits Boris Johnson perfectly IMO.
---------- Post added at 11:42 ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 ----------
I wish people would be proportional in their outrage. Twitter/Reddit is just a no-go area now with people intentionally misunderstanding what the Queen's role is in all this.
I think Boris Johnson is behaving badly here but the Queen isn't being asked to suspend democracy.
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Is he though? A Queen’s Speech after a session lasting, say, six months, would be an abuse of process, but the current session is now more than 2 years old, and apparently the oldest in centuries. He is entirely within his rights to use his power to advise the Queen in order to control parliamentary business. That’s what governments do and it’s an essential part of the balance of power that emerged after the English Civil War period. Parliament is sovereign; its legislation (or respect for convention) permits the government to function. A monarch with powers constitutionally limited was agreed in 1660 to be preferable to a “Lord Protector” whose powers and influence had no such agreed limit. Well, here we are in 2020 and the monarch is exercising her powers in accordance with the longstanding will of parliament. So far as I can see, Boris’ behaviour here is no worse than the way MPs took over government business in the Commons before the summer and announced they would do again next month.
---------- Post added at 12:19 ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 ----------
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Originally Posted by OLD BOY
Boris isn't behaving badly at all. He is honoring the vote of the electorate in the referendum.
Parliament would have been suspended anyway for the party conference season, so this fuss is only about a few extra days.
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To play devil’s advocate for a moment, it isn’t just about a couple of days. It’s about the ability to kill off anything the opposition might have tried to set in train at the beginning of September, and also to fill as many of the days after 14 October as possible with the consequences of the Queen’s Speech. On paper perhaps only a couple of sitting days are lost but the effect on any opposition plans for mischief is rather more serious.