On the afternoon of this past Wednesday — following the U.K. supreme court’s ruling that the prorogation of Parliament by Her Majesty’s Government was unlawful, null, and void, had never happened at all legally, and would have to be reversed — the U.K’s chief legal officer, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, rose to speak to a largely hostile House of Commons. In addition to feeling the government’s general travails, Cox seemed to be in a sticky position personally because it was he who had advised the cabinet that prorogation was indisputably legal — to the point that anyone who denied it could have only political motives for so doing.
Cox was therefore defending himself as much as the government.
When he sat down a short time later, the Tory benches were buoyant, cheering for the first time in weeks. Cox had knocked Labour MPs, ex-Tory dissidents, Liberal Democrat scolds, and the entire anti-Brexit Coalition of Incompatibles around the Commons chamber with the kind of robust theatrical performance that only a top Queen’s counsel (a kind of super-lawyer) can put across with easy conviction.
While respecting the supreme court’s judgment, he said he did not agree with it. He refused to apologize for the legal advice he had given the cabinet, which reflected what the law was before the supreme court’s judgment. He responded forcefully and even dismissively to successive critics on the Opposition benches, telling one Labour MP that he ought to beg the forgiveness of his voters for betraying them over Brexit. And overall, he denounced the opposition parties for cowardice and obstructionism:
Let me tell them the truth, they can vote no confidence at any time, but they are too cowardly. They could agree to a motion to allow this House to dissolve, but they are too cowardly. This parliament should have the courage to face the electorate, but it won’t, because so many of them are really all about preventing us leaving the European Union — but the time is coming, the time is coming, Mr. Speaker, when even these turkeys won’t be able to prevent Christmas.
Twice he delivered a line that had the Opposition benches screeching like the demonically possessed from an Exorcist movie: “This parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these green benches.”
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See Also:
(1) Rouhani Has Exposed the Futility of European Diplomacy
(2) Arrogant Remainers’ Brexit blocking plan plays into Boris’ hands
(3) Brexit warning: Leave EU or UK doesn’t have ‘a prayer’ of healing divisions, says Boris
(4) Boris Johnson to make ‘loose pact’ with Brexit Party because he has to says ex-Tory MP
(5) ‘Act of treason and traitor!’ Express.co.uk readers say Benn Act is ‘worse than surrender’
