All Our Yesterdays: Day 38
30.08.19: The Mail Online carried this headline:
“…most voters think the Queen was RIGHT to approve his (Johnson’s) request to suspend Parliament in his drive to deliver Brexit”.
For the Mail Online employing undemocratic and unlawful tactics, so that Tory politicians get their own way is perfectly acceptable if that is what a majority of people want: forget democracy, forget legality.
Even if the Mail’s argument were correct (which is not) the Mail Online was being disingenuous. For those readers who bothered to scroll down the page and look more closely at the poll findings they would have found that when asked the question: "Do you support Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament” only 39% answered yes.
The question as to whether the Queen was right to approve prorogation was a different question entirely, involving a different set of democratic principles. For better or for worse we live under a constitutional monarchy and one of those principles is that the Queen does not involve herself in politics. So when 52% of the people said the Queen was right to approve prorogation, they correctly answered "yes". She would have been breaking convention if she had openly gone against Johnson’s request.
I mention this because in the months to come, as Johnson and Cummings continue to undemocratically consolidate power at the centre, expect right wing media outlets to misrepresent the facts and support ever-repressive and undemocratic actions by Johnson and his right-wing cronies at Number 10.