But, like I said, I wonder if their Majesty actually did have an effect on the outcome. I mean, ultimately he structure of the democracy requires the Crown perform their ceremonial duty, but Elizabeth II may very well have made Johnson feel too uncomfortable to ask for prorogation from August 30 to November 1.
I think this is a really interesting situation. Being from Canada I was stunned there was a judicial review at all. The PM asks the Crown to prorogue parliament, it happens, the courts have no power over that. But the tone of the UK articles I read about it didn’t seem to agree. Everyone seems to think the courts might actually do something. And the thing I realized is that the courts can’t tell the queen what to do, but they sure can tell prime minister what to do.
And it made me realize that I’ve understood something wrong my entire life. We’ve put so much power in the hands of the prime minister that we forget that parliamentary supremacy is not prime ministerial supremacy. Having no written constitution in the UK actually means the courts can order the prime minister to do something, because the entire notion of an executive is kind of a fiction - the executive is just executing the will of parliament, they have no authority of their own.
Johnson may just ignore the courts, and there isn’t much they can do about it. But that’s a problem that has come up in the US as well - there have been occasions where the president basically just said, “I’m not going to do what the courts want, what are they going to do about it?” The president has an army, the courts do not.
But then we are back to the queen. Say the courts say that the prorogation is unconstitutional and demand Johnson go to the Queen to give different advice. Then Johnson says, “Up yours.” Then MPs meet anyway and hold parliament anyway and everyone except Johnson and Johnsons’ strongest backers are there. Without them this parliament will easily pass a no confidence motion and a motion to bar a no-deal Brexit. Then the person they say is prime minister takes that bill to the Queen for royal assent.
The courts have said the prorogation was improper, parliament is saying they passed a bill. Now the Queen has to decide whether the ceremonial duty of the crown is to parliament or to Boris Johnson. I don’t think the Queen likes Boris Johnson.
