Editorial of The New York Sun | August 28, 2019
Queen Elizabeth II’s approval of the suspension of Parliament next month is an important step in protecting Britain’s decision to leave Europe. It is crucial to a plan of Prime Minister Johnson that is being set down by furious opponents as, in the words of one, “profoundly undemocratic.” What a hypocritical jibe. For Mr. Johnson seeks to redeem a Brexit referendum that is one of the great acts of direct democracy in modern history.
The request to prorogue Parliament was set in motion Wednesday, the British state broadcasting agency reports. Mr. Johnson sent three members of the Privy Council — among them the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the Chief Whip, Mark Spencer — racing by flying machine to the Queen’s castle at Balmoral, where they delivered Mr. Johnson’s letter.
Elizabeth II’s power to prorogue Parliament is astonishing to us Yanks, in that it is sharply greater than that of our own head of state. Adjournment is the one vote a Congress can make that doesn’t require the president’s signature. A president may, on extraordinary occasions, convene a Congress, but the only time he can force an adjournment is when the two houses can’t agree when to adjourn........To Read More....
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