Queen Will Save Brexit? NO SHE WON’T

That Brexit backers were at an enhanced level of desperation was apparent over the weekend, with disgraced former Defence Secretary Liam Fox making a number of creative claims and accusations during an interview on The Andy Marr Show™ yesterday, and the anti-EU part of our free and fearless press becoming increasingly shrill and hysterical.

But the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog has taken that desperation to a new low today, as they add paranoid delusion to the mix and come up with “Queen Could refuse Assent For House-Led Bills On Advice Of Government”. Someone chez Fawkes is having an out of reality awayday.

Referring to an article on the increasingly wacko Policy Exchange site by lawyer Stephen Laws, the Fawkes massive tells readers “Attempting to change the law without the Government’s participation, he argues, could jeopardise fundamental constitutional principles based on centuries of history, especially if the Speaker dispenses with or ignores a rule that gives Government complete control over increases to public expenditure”. The target of this attack is Tory MP Dominic Grieve.

What The Great Guido has not told those readers is that Laws’ previous efforts for Policy Exchange include “How to exit the backstop”, where he tells “While Parliament is not able to enact a right to withdraw from the backstop - the right would have to arise under international law - Parliament might be able to secure some strengthening of the UK’s position on the termination of the backstop”. Might. Could. Perhaps. Maybe. Maybe not.

Also, anything that comes out of Policy Exchange should not be taken as fact without a reliable second source. But this does not deter the Fawkes rabble, who go into full tinfoil hat mode, blustering “If the Speaker and Dominic Grieve are going to vandalise the constitution and overturn established parliamentary conventions, don’t expect the government to just roll over”. Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes?

And here comes the pièce de résistance: “The Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will be studying this argument closely as no doubt will the Brexit sympathetic Queen”. The Brexit sympathetic Queen? F*** off. Just f*** right off. And then f*** off some more. The Great Guido knows sweet Jack about what the Queen thinks. All he’s got to go on is a totally made-up and now discredited Sun front page splash.

Trying to involve the Queen in politics - any politics - is the ultimate sign of desperation. Our present monarch was used by Harold Macmillan to stop Rab Butler becoming Tory leader and Prime Minister after Mac bowed out. She will have learned since then not to go anywhere near the bear pit of politics ever again. The Fawkes premise is totally false.

So when The Great Guido ends his post “Grieve isn’t as clever as he thinks he is”, you have to remember that it should also say “and nor is Paul Staines”.

Brexit backers are beyond desperate. That’s what happens when you lose the argument.

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