After all that fuss, Parliament is sitting again. But to what purpose?

The Prorogation Crisis is over. After all the hullabaloo last week about the suspension of Parliament, leading to its recall after an unprecedented Supreme Court judgement that Boris

Johnson’s advice to the Queen had been unlawful, what has the House of Commons done? The answer — surely embarrassing for all those who exulted over the triumph of legislature over executive

— is: so far, next to nothing.

Now that the Conservative Party Conference is over, it should be business as usual in Westminster. Lords and Commons even have something serious to scrutinise: a formal proposal to resolve

the impasse on the Irish backstop. What is the betting, however, that very little scrutiny will take place in either chamber? The plan aims to square the circle of four seemingly

irreconcilable positions adopted by the key players (UK, EU, DUP and Dublin). It is conceptually complex and some of the details are quite technical. All far too difficult for the vast

majority of MPs to grasp, even if most could be bothered to do so.

What will happen instead will be another bear-baiting session. The “rebel alliance” of Opposition, independent MPs and the Speaker will try to corner the Prime Minister so that he can be

subjected to an open-ended, no-holds-barred inquisition. That has hitherto been the function of PMQs, which used to be limited to 15 minutes twice a week, until Tony Blair consolidated it

into a single half-hour, which Speaker Bercow has arbitrarily extended to anything up to an hour.

Fair enough, you may say. Why shouldn’t the Prime Minister be forced to answer to the House as often as its members see fit? So, in principle, he or she should. But there is a reason why

these particular MPs are so desperate to bring Boris back. This Parliament is so rancorous, so impotent, so exhausted, that its only remaining raison d’être is to fulminate against its

primus inter pares. Every time Boris stands up, it draws negative energy from his presence. In his absence, it is quiescent. The Commons has morphed into the Boris-baiting show.

Hence the proposal that Parliament be prorogued again from next Tuesday, to allow a Queen’s Speech and a new session to commence the following week, has aroused practically no controversy.

The great and good have made their point. Prorogation will now cease to be the drama that became a crisis, and return to its normal role as an arcane, largely ceremonial procedure. The

public, which cares little about parliamentary process, but does care about Brexit, might at last get its money’s worth from MPs who sometimes seem to suppose that they receive their

salaries and expenses for nothing more than complaining about how unpopular they have become. Boris Johnson’s digs at Parliament in his conference speech will have hit home. It has indeed

been “on the blink” for too long.

Fortunately there is now an end in sight. The deal now tabled by the Government could command a majority in the Commons, if only Brussels can be made to take it seriously. In that case the

Benn Act might never be needed and a new stalemate avoided. The prospect of a general election to give a new Government a fresh mandate ought to be welcomed by all sides. The fact that it

isn’t shows that something is amiss in the much-vaunted “Westminster democracy”. Indeed, a Cromwellian mood is beginning to pervade the country. Time is running out for our political class

to put its House in order.

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