Prorogation ... It's An Outrage ...

"It's a constitutional outrage" claimed Speaker Bercow, "An assault on democracy" claimed many. "Unfair that a 94 year old woman should have her Scottish holiday interrupted" stated Kay Burley in a series of tough questions to government ministers

It was left to Jacob Rees-Mogg to assuage concerns generated by the "candy floss of outrage" almost entirely "confected" by the last stand of remainers determined to thwart Brexit.

It was the "Mogg" and other members of the Privy Council who had made the flight to Balmoral. The Queen had to approve the prorogation of Parliament, on the recommendation of her ministers. It must have been a long flight for a short meeting. The "Mogg" must have read up on Bagehot the night before, along with a copy of "Jeeves and the King of Clubs".

This is the one which involves Wodehouse’s fictional fascist group, the Black Shorts, seeking to promote “The British way of life, the British sense of fair play and the British love of Britishness”. What else. 

"Monty hailed from one of the finest families; he had an accent fruity enough to spread on a muffin, and his fondness for double-breasted suiting meant he was rarely dressed in anything less than a full acre of tweed."

What can be the attraction of stories about lifestyles long since abandoned by normality?

In his absence on the border, normality returned to the hatchet rooms of Downing Street. Sajid Javid was "absolutely furious" that Dominic Cummings sacked one of his most senior SPADs for not being one of us. Sonia Khan was escorted out of Downing Street by armed police this week. Cummings was unrepentant telling a meeting of government advisers, "If you don't like how I run things, there's the door. F*** Off!"

Cummings is doing his best to out-Tucker Malcolm Tucker, head SPAD from "In the Thick of It". "Don't call me a bully" Tucker would say, "I am much worse than that". A fictional bully who could choose to ignore non-fictional employment legislation.

So what of prorogation? It has been tried before. For Charles 1st and John Major it did not end well. Senior Tories are to warn Johnson this week, he has lost their trust. Others will then explain, he never really had it in the first place. The sight of Jacob Rees-Mogg waving a Union Jack, wearing a frock coat on the steps of Number Ten, will not deter the people in pursuit of just cause. 

This article is an extract from the Saturday Economist Weekly Update.