Boris Johnson is riding roughshod over our parliamentary democracy – we cannot let him

I write to express my complete and utter outrage and horror at the announcement that Boris Johnson has so cynically moved to suspend parliament until 14 October.

Let me be quite clear about just how I feel: I have never, in all of my 50 years, felt so incandescently angry about any political issue.

This is a seizure of power which amounts to a coup d’etat. I am quite sure that MPs do not need to be reminded that UK sovereignty resides in the parliament, and not in the executive. For the executive to attempt to suspend the rights of MPs to sit in parliament at such a crucial point in British history is a subversion of that sovereignty of the most transparent, calculated and frankly disgusting sort.

This is a grab for power by the prime minister and nothing else, made with only the interests of the Conservative Party in mind, while wholly disregarding the parliament and the rest of the nation, done on the very flimsiest of pretexts.

The pleadings of Conservative Party apologists that this is somehow “business as usual” and that the “government is to hold a Queen’s Speech, just as all new governments do” (James Cleverly, Conservative Party chair, on Twitter) are utterly transparent. Cleverly should be ashamed of himself.

As John Bercow, the speaker, has said this morning: “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course of the country.” His words are already echoed by Philip Hammond describing this action as “profoundly undemocratic”.

I grew up believing that the United Kingdom’s system of parliamentary democracy was one of the greatest and strongest in the world, with checks and balances built up over many centuries to avoid the misuse of power. Boris Johnson’s actions show quite clearly that he believes that he may ride roughshod over these checks and balances. Such belief shows, in my mind, that he is clearly not fit to serve as prime minister.

If his action is allowed to stand unchallenged, then the world will see our democracy dealt a serious blow, the likes of which have not been seen in centuries.

The UK parliament must be allowed to continue to sit until the issue of Brexit on 31 October is properly and democratically resolved, in whichever direction. A no-deal Brexit cannot be legitimately engineered in this fashion.

I believe it is every MP’s duty, in this time of national and constitutional crisis, to stand for and defend the parliament and the good of the nation, ahead of any party-political allegiance.

MPs must act to defend the sovereignty of parliament and ensure that parliament prevents a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. Such prevention may require uncommon action – it may mean that another prime minister falls, even a government. It may require a government of national unity. But high principles are at stake here, higher even than Brexit, and those who would do such damage to our nation must not be allowed to do so without a fight.

Dan Shannon
Australia

Future historians, studying our depressing period, will surely be interested in the ingenious and time-tested use of the Marxist bogeyman to deflect from the right-wing plot against our democracy.

Even now, as Jeremy Corbyn leads the fight to defend parliament and prevent a no-deal Brexit, the most cynical delegitimisation campaign of recent years is in full force.

“The enemy is on the right!” as Joseph Wirth pleaded in the Reichstag in 1922.

“I am convinced I see quite clearly ... [what] it is that stands in the way ... It is a word ... of which a clever and injurious use is made to frighten the average citizen. I mean the word Marxist,” wrote Thomas Mann, imploringly, in 1930.

The enemy is at the gates. It is time to wake up.

Emma Jones
Abingdon, Oxfordshire

I have read your online coverage of this event today with rising anger. This is not democracy. This is what happens when there is no written constitution. So the PM wants to “take back control” so he can do what he wants to with the country and ignore the devastating effect this will have on the union and its people. Civil unrest must now seem inevitable.

Elizabeth Hart
Battle, East Sussex

Parliament must move next week to quickly pass an act which gives it power over prorogation – ie to reverse, shorten it etc, and then exercise that power.

This would curtail the government’s prerogative powers. A comparable limit on these powers was made by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act – before that the prime minister had unilateral power to call elections. Calling elections is now rightly a power of parliament not government.

This would be a progressive and overdue change because it places a crucial function of democracy – whether our legislature remains in active session – in the hands of our elected representatives.

Nick Cox
London SW15

I think I finally understand how no-dealers justify their contradictory position of supporting suspending our parliamentary democracy to facilitate an unmandated EU withdrawal, while simultaneously screaming that our democracy has been subverted and we must restore parliamentary sovereignty.

For them, the result of the 2016 referendum trumps everything; the electorate has spoken. The outcome of the 2017 general election is irrelevant because a candidate’s Brexit stance wasn’t the only deciding influence on how people voted. We now have a single-issue parliament. Its one job: to deliver Brexit. If MPs can’t do that, suspending parliament finally ends the democratic process which started with the referendum.

This sounds reasonable, if you ignore that ours is a representative democracy not a direct one. It also explains the Lib Dems’ desire for the current parliament to deliver a second referendum, as a general election has no significance for no dealers. However, they fail to acknowledge that a referendum win for Remain is uncertain, especially as the Lib Dems are merely offering a continuation of the status quo.

Leavers voted for change. Since joining the EEC, inequality has worsened. Home ownership is an unachievable dream, university education is costly, state pensions are insufficient and retirement age is increasing. We no longer own our major industries, services or infrastructure. Our state assets were not taken by the EU: the Tories sold them with the promise that we would all benefit. Now the profits are sent overseas, not to the exchequer.

Prior to the Thatcher government, the top rate of income tax was 95 per cent: it’s now 45 per cent. Business tax was 50 per cent: it’s now 20 per cent. Tax cuts (not immigration) have stripped our services of funds, which right-wing advocates of no-deal will extend once free from the protections of the EU.

The imminent suspension of parliament prevents the implementation of legislation to avert no deal. A no-confidence motion must be passed by MPs and a temporary government installed to secure an extension now.

Remainers must unite to offer a return to the socialist policies which fuelled the prosperity of the postwar era or risk a deepening of the inequality and lack of opportunities which motivated so many to vote for Brexit in the first place.

Ieuan Jehu
Totland Bay, Isle of Wight

On TV news Jacob Rees Mogg could be heard telling a journalist that the prorogation was legal. Well, as a supposedly committed Christian he should heed his master’s teaching to the Pharisees that a legal act performed in the wrong spirit or for a wrongful purpose is immoral.

Francis Beswick
Stretford, Greater Manchester