People are shocked that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to prorogue Parliament. Months late and many pounds short, I have to say. Where were they when Theresa May shook off a crushing confidence vote defeat and kept Parliament sitting for the longest session ever in order to sneer at it?
Parliamentary institutions are apparently confusing—to those who don’t live under them, to those who do, and increasingly to those who work in them. And I grant that things like the throne speech can seem absurd, with its “Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod” door-knocking and the prime minister doing the ventriloquism thing with the Queen or governor-general. But behind the ritual is deep meaning we need to hold onto or, increasingly, recapture.
