Will the Queen settle the Brexit imbroglio?

As the clock counts down to October 31, there is no solution in sight to Britain’s Brexit nightmare.

News ID: 447221

Date: 23 September 2019 - 08:53

RNA - With the Supreme Court set to rule on the legality (or lack thereof) of Parliament’s prorogation possibly as early as tomorrow, Brexit-related tensions are set to intensify further still.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is now stuck in the deepest political pit imaginable.

If he keeps his word and ignores the law – and the will of Parliament – Johnson risks igniting serious political instability.

On the other hand, if the PM succumbs to the will of parliament, and agrees to delay Brexit for another three months, then he will have broken his pledge of taking Britain out of the European Union (EU) by October 31, “do or die”.

More broadly, in view of the fact that Britain’s politicians have singularly failed to achieve a Brexit breakthrough, it remains to be seen if the Queen will now step up to rescue the country from indefinite political instability.

Indeed, there is now growing speculation as to what the Queen will do next, especially in the light of recent events and revelations which have blown the myth about her supposedly “apolitical” role.

The Queen agreed to Johnson’s request to prorogue parliament in highly contentious circumstances. According to Australian Constitutional Law expert, Professor Anne Twomey, the Queen potentially acted “unconstitutionally” by agreeing to prorogation.

In a blog for the London School of Economics, Twomey argues that Johnson’s prorogation request could be regarded as “unconstitutional” as it was “done for the purpose of avoiding a vote of no confidence or other action by Parliament against the government’s will”.

The Queen’s over-eagerness to help Johnson, in a climate of uncertainty about the PM's true intentions for suspending Parliament, coupled with revelations that the Queen helped former PM David Cameron win the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, has thrust the monarch into the centre stage of politics.

Writing in the Guardian yesterday, veteran British journalist and author, Nick Cohen, argues that the Queen is a “sham” head of state, for she can neither act as a “constitutional president” nor insist that the PM “obeys the rules”, as there are “too few rules in Britain”.

Nor can the Queen argue anymore that she is “above politics”, Cohen argues, by referencing prorogation and Cameron’s revelations.

It remains to be seen what the Queen does next in this intensifying political and constitutional crisis.

Will the Queen surprise everyone by throwing caution to the wind by standing firmly behind Johnson’s “do or die” approach to getting Brexit over the line by the current deadline?

Rupert Cansell/Press TV

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