No longer are we the land of the free as Supreme Court seizes control of Brexit and democracy from Parliament – Bernard Ingham

NO longer are we the land of the free. The oldest Parliamentary democracy has been hijacked by those who call themselves democrats – and not just by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.
Protesters celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark verdict.Protesters celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark verdict.
Protesters celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark verdict.

We have been reduced to minority rule even before, God forbid, Jeremy Corbyn and Co have had the ever remoter chance after this week’s Labour Party conference of proving it beyond peradventure.

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The Supreme Court’s dangerous ruling that Boris Johnson acted illegally in proroguing Parliament puts the tin hat on it. We are now completely in the hands of lawyers not elected governments.

Protesters celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark verdict.Protesters celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark verdict.
Protesters celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark verdict.

The only other time in my life when I thought Britain was becoming ungovernable was during the so-called Winter of Discontent in 1978-79. Fortunately, the hour found the woman and Margaret Thatcher rescued us from chaotic union dictatorship that Corbyn would reimpose.

Today’s virus may seem less destructive but it is no less damaging to our democracy. The minority – Remainers – have rendered the nation ungovernable by using every means to paralyse the executive unless they get their way.

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The views of the majority are ignored. We are even treated as ignorant Northerners not to be listened to. Our utterly defeatist Establishment or elite know better and are determined to have their way.

Baroness Hale delivered the Supreme Court's ruling on the suspension of Parliament.Baroness Hale delivered the Supreme Court's ruling on the suspension of Parliament.
Baroness Hale delivered the Supreme Court's ruling on the suspension of Parliament.

With the connivance of this once proud nation’s worst and most contemptible Speaker in its history, they have usurped the elected Government and assumed the right to legislate even if they cannot agree on anything other than to keep us in the EU.

Just imagine their difficulty in concocting a Queen’s Speech. Yet what do they do? They go to court to prevent the PM from fashioning a programme after three wasted years of fratching over Europe.

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It is that act of going to court, led or endorsed by former Prime Ministers who should know better, that is the last straw for me.

The Supreme Court has made a landmark ruling over the suspension of Brexit.The Supreme Court has made a landmark ruling over the suspension of Brexit.
The Supreme Court has made a landmark ruling over the suspension of Brexit.

Let me assure you that, on the basis of my 24 years’ experience of Labour and Tory administrations, Governments do not move without legal advice. They try to uphold the law that they and their predecessors have laid down in the Statute Book.

I imagine they advised the PM that it was his prerogative to seek proroguation and that he would only curtail debate for a few days, given the Parliamentary recess. Remainers would still have ample time to disrupt the works from mid-October.

In short, the Supreme Court has chosen to assist the minority against 17.4m who voted Leave

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Now we have an affluent nation, 
with legal aid to boot, litigious to a fault, lining the pockets of the successors to Dickens’ Jarndyce and Jarndyce. After our tuneless troubadours of “pop”and soccer stars, they are rolling in filthy lucre.

Indeed, it has now reached the
stage where Governments are sued
to try to stop them from carrying out policies on which they were elected
for no better reason than the elite minority, elected on the same manifesto promise to quit the EU, have changed their tune.

In their desperation they have not the slightest compunction about usurping the function of Government and legislating, through Hilary Benn,
to frustrate the nation’s will. Yet
one of the reasons for the “Leave” 
vote was Brussels’ primacy over Westminster.

What is the point of electing a Government if its policies are subject not to the judgment of the electorate but to hosts of lawyers clamouring for briefs from the disaffected? A lawyer’s job is to interpret the law not to seize opportunities to twist it to the purpose of others. .

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Let me be frank: the legal profession has nowt to write home about in its administration of criminal justice. It 
does not always give the impression of wanting to deter crime when chief constables condescend to give them the opportunity.

We cannot have a healthy democracy 
if every minority feels it can impose its will on the rest of us through the court. Yet that is what we have now got. 
Before we know where we are, schoolchildren will be suing the Government for not doing enough to combat climate change. And to hell with their parents’ views.

Margaret Thatcher used to say that the mark of a healthy democracy is how it treats its minorities. But what of one where minorities ignore and pour scorn on the majority with the aid of lawyers waiting in the wings?

We are blurring responsibilities for no better reason than the Establishment thinks Brexiteer Yorkshiremen like me are as thick as two planks.

We know who is dense – and dangerous with it.