Goodbye democracy: British Parliament closed for five weeks

(Patria) – Scenes of anger and chaos marked the House of Commons on Monday evening and early Tuesday morning, on the day of the official closure of Parliament by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Members of Parliament from the opposition protested against the five-week suspension of Parliament, carrying banners saying 'silenced', which translates from English as 'one who is forced to be quiet'.

Several MPs approached the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, to prevent him from leaving his seat to join the House of Lords as the next part of the parliamentary suspension procedure.

Shouts of 'shame on you' were heard from opposition MPs directed at the Tories who were leaving the room.

The anger of the MPs reached its peak early on Tuesday morning, at the end of a day in which Boris Johnson lost parliamentary support for the 6th time, while John Bercow announced his resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons after 10 years in the position. The reason for this was clear when Bercow, not hiding his sentiment, stated that 'this is not a normal prorogation'.

- It is not typical, it is not standard. This is one of the longest (prorogations) in recent decades and represents, not only for many colleagues but also for a huge number of people outside, an act of executive order, said Bercow.

MPs raised 'silenced' banners at his words and tried to prevent him from leaving his seat. Labour MP Alex Sobel explained that such a move signifies 'an attempt by members to prevent the Speaker from adjourning (Parliament) on the orders of Charles I'. Sobel is actually referring to an incident in 1629 when MPs, angry about the closure of Parliament, left their seats and literally sat on the Speaker, in an attempt to prevent him from carrying out the act of closure, which allowed them to pass decisions condemning the king for the act of neutralizing Parliament.

Bercow nevertheless managed to leave after calling on MPs to shake hands in farewell.

Later, a frantic exchange followed on Twitter, where Tory MPs raged at their opposition colleagues for trying to prevent the Speaker from leaving his seat, while the latter expressed anger over the closure of Parliament.

This was preceded by another difficult day for the Prime Minister, as Parliament's proposal to prevent a no-deal Brexit on October 31st also received royal assent, thus becoming law.

Prime Minister Johnson lost another battle; namely, his push for early general elections did not succeed thanks to the abstention of opposition MPs.

Parliament also voted in favour of the proposal (311 for, 302 against) for Johnson to disclose the Operation Yellohammer documents detailing the government's no-deal Brexit plan.

Former MP, Tory Dominic Grieve, also proposed that Boris Johnson show messages related to the closure of Parliament that he received from his senior advisor Dominic Cummings and other advisors via WhatsApp, Facebook, and other social media, as well as via phone. Grieve stated that he heard from some officials that their correspondence contains elements of 'scandal'.

Government sources, however, claim that Johnson's advisors would rather take legal action than hand over the correspondence.