Opinion

Analysis: Raging Brexit war makes restoring local politics an impossible task

Lady Hale delivers the ruling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's advice to the Queen to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful: Picture by Supreme Court/PA Wire.
Lady Hale delivers the ruling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's advice to the Queen to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful: Picture by Supreme Court/PA Wire. Lady Hale delivers the ruling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's advice to the Queen to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful: Picture by Supreme Court/PA Wire.

IT has been repeatedly said that we are living in 'unprecedented times', a phrase said so often it has lost impact with a weary public.

Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling that Parliament had been unlawfully prorogued, delivered with an authoritarian air by Lady Hale, was a devastating blow for Boris Johnson.

As of 11.30am today it should be 'business as usual' at Westminster as politicians rush back early from party conference season.

But there is no longer any 'as usual', no longer any abiding by parliamentary protocols and the political procedures respected for generations.

Instead it's 'make it up as you go along' time, with democracy in disarray and literally anything can happen.

The Supreme Court ruling represented an order of defeat that no other prime minister in British parliamentary history has ever endured.

However, Boris Johnson shakes off defeat like no other leader in history.

During his short tenure he has not won a single Commons vote and yet still claims with bluster that he will deliver Brexit by October 31.

A man wearing a giant Boris Johnson mask, dressed as a prisoner, outside the Supreme Court in London: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire.
A man wearing a giant Boris Johnson mask, dressed as a prisoner, outside the Supreme Court in London: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire. A man wearing a giant Boris Johnson mask, dressed as a prisoner, outside the Supreme Court in London: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire.

The fall out of calling a referendum without a plan has so far taken the scalps of two prime ministers - David Cameron before the mayhem even got started and Theresa May after a determined but failed effort.

Boris Johnson could well be the third, although he will not leave Downing Street as Britain's shortest ever serving leader without a fight.

There has never been a more significant constitutional law ruling. The Supreme Court has stepped into a political vacuum and made a judgment described as the equivalent of a 'constitutional earthquake'.

Normal parliamentary rules no longer apply.

And while Johnson may well be the next casualty of this democratic disaster that doesn't solve the Brexit crisis.

Whoever takes over from him will inherit the same problems.

The British people are divided, parliament is divided, democracy is in meltdown.

Closer to home we have always been divided.

While others rush to distance themselves from the controversial PM the DUP - who have closely aligned themselves to the Conservative Party - will have to partially own the fallout whatever comes next.

While the never ending disorder at Westminster is taking its toll on Britain, both economically and in terms of community cohesion, in Northern Ireland it has only further highlighted the differences between Sinn Féin and the DUP on almost every single issue.

With Stormont talks parked indefinitely it seems almost impossible to imagine a time when power-sharing will be restored.

Every political scandal that has come before is now dwarfed in comparison to Brexit chaos, the repercussions of which could possibly be felt for generations to come.

Read more:Who is Lady Hale?