Yesterday was eventful. Johnson asked the Queen to suppress the parliamentary timetable. Within hours a petition was up objecting to it and attracting thousands of signatures and by the evening there were crowds of protestors in cities up and down the country. I have given up predicting what happens next, but this must surely be a significant development.
This morning I wake up to find abolishing the monarchy trending on twitter. If anyone had asked me which institution would not be affected by Brexit I would happily have bet money on the monarchy. This crisis is getting deep.
So what happens next? It seems rather remarkable but it looks like there are actually no levers to pull to prevent this happening. I had always assumed that the Queen would ultimately not allow her government to do anything this unconstitutional. But she seems to have done so. MPs are not going to be able to do anything without a parliament to sit in. The protestors are not numerous enough to pose a threat to the state - and indeed seemed rather good natured. So it appears that despite everything Brexit is going to be delivered in the teeth of massive opposition and in its least popular form.
It's hard to see how we can claim Britain is a democracy if something so manifestly against the views and interests of the majority of its people can be forced on them in this way. It takes a certain kind of twisted genius to win a referendum on leaving the EU and yet still contrive to leave in a way that is totally undemocratic. We've become the only banana republic with straight bananas.
This is all deeply disappointing, and I have a feeling that the story won't be over once we are out.
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