Why Boris Johnson should be the next Oliver Cromwell

Brexit has exposed a fatal flaw in the British Constitution

Boris Johnson.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Frank Augstein - WPA pool/Getty Images, Hulton Archive/Getty Images, yopinco/iStock)

If Brexit has shown us anything, it is that the fabled unwritten British constitution — the subject of so much Bagehotian drivel — is a dead letter. Queen Elizabeth is head of state in name only, a kind of bejeweled notary public, and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, is merely the head of her government. His recent prorogation of Parliament in the hope of forcing a no-deal Brexit was declared null on Tuesday by the recently created Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, led by "Red" Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, with whom the British people are being told the buck ultimately stops.

This is lawless. Never in the history of the British Isles has the judiciary exercised any power over such decisions. The font of law is the monarch, who has given her assent to the prorogation upon the advice of her ministers. The Supreme Court's ruling is nonsensical on its face because it assumes a jurisdiction that it does not possess. The unwillingness of Britain's quasi-official establishment to assent to the will of her people on the European question has made them a nation of constitutional engineers. A reactionary like Johnson will not be able to match their ingenuity. His only hope is to look to the past rather than to the kritarchy envisioned by the BBC and the Guardian and the City.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.