Nearly two thirds of Britons believe Boris Johnson should apologise to the Queen for the way he acted to unlawfully prorogue Parliament, with many people unhappy with the way the the PM and his adviser Dominic Cummings have abused the British constitution.
In the wake of the unanimous 11-0 Supreme Court decision, a Survation poll found that 62 percent of the public think that Johnson should apologise to the monarch for acting unlawfully to try and limit Parliament’s ability to scrutinise his actions over Brexit. Whilst he may have the support of the right-wing of the Conservative Party, the country as a whole has not been impressed with the way Johnson has acted since becoming prime minister.
The latest polls show Johnson’s lead eroding despite a historically unpopular leader of the opposition and the vociferous support of the Daily Mail, The Sun, and The Telegraph, and a dubious Facebook marketing campaign.
Johnson did enjoy a post-nomination bump in the weeks after he was crowned Tory leader with many hoping that he might bring an end to the Brexit fiasco. However, since Parliament was recalled after the summer recess, it has become increasingly apparent that Johnson is a poor leader that will do anything to “win”, including running roughshod over the constitution in an attempt to force through his interpretation of Brexit, which is less popular than Remaining in the EU with the country and has been blocked multiple times by MPs across the House of Commons.
It is clear that Johnson has been backed into a corner by MPs, where he is required to ask for an extension if he is unable to bring back a Brexit deal to the Commons, and his lack of ability to compromise makes any such deal extremely unlikely. He has lost his majority, lost all seven votes his government have so far proposed, and most recently lost the chance of a recess for the Conservative Party conference. However, with trust in a man found guilty of breaking the law and the constitution already in the gutter, opposition MPs, including former Conservative members, will not give him the chance at an election until the risk of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October has been avoided.
His anger at his own impotence has been on display this week, with his government’s Trumpian attacks on the judiciary and any institution that dares to show him to be the failure that he has become. His top adviser, Dominic Cummings, remains in contempt of Parliament for refusing to answer questions on illegal campaign spending by the Leave campaign, but continues to pseudo-anonymously brief the press that delaying Brexit will cause riots and violence. As there was no such violence when the Brexit deadline was previously delayed, the only reason for violence at the end of October would be thanks to the violent and aggressive language they are using to try and whip up for the anti-government election stance they plan to implement whenever the next election is called. They forget, however, that the only reason the UK remains in the EU at this point is because Boris Johnson, along with his friends in the far right of the Conservative Party, refused to vote for Theresa May’s deal. Johnson is the figurehead of those that voted to block Brexit, and a major part of the reason the UK is in its current predicament.
