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A “final say” on Brexit will be a significant historical defeat for democracy not only here in Britain or even just in Europe, but in the world at large. If a majority decision can be delayed and then eventually overturned in a leading liberal democracy such as Britain, what hope is there for those struggling in much more difficult circumstances?

All the signs point to Boris Johnson accepting some version of a Northern Ireland-only "backstop" in the hope that he can sneak a withdrawal deal through parliament at the last minute. He may not succeed. If he does, the DUP will have to be offered a fig leaf. But, if Johnson tries this, he will confirm that the sovereignty of the British state in Northern Ireland is too weak for even a Conservative government to be willing to take the province out of the Single Market without the approval of Du...

Leave-supporting MPs have been accused of using “inflammatory language”. Remainers have been doing that for three years.

I've heard it said that those at the top of society and those at the bottom have always understood each other; it’s those annoying people in the middle who don’t understand either who are the problem.

Boris Johnson will play on this myth to win him the next election. He will claim to be fighting a culture war on behalf of ordinary folk against the irritating chattering classes and Brexit will be at the centre of it. The polls are on his side: one recent poll showed 72 percent of voters believe th...

Remainer fury following Boris Johnson’s slightly longer than normal suspension of parliament was organised around the left’s idea that this was a coup or dictatorship in the making. Their rhetoric was quickly exposed as ridiculous when, within days, parliament met in the normal fashion, defeated the government in crucial votes and then refused to take up the government’s offer of a general election. Nevertheless both MPs and left-wing activists have persisted with the pantomime. It is important...

There is much to be suspicious of in Boris Johnson’s constitutional skulduggery. But there is no resemblance between the British government’s cynical ploys today and a coup d’etat, fascist thuggery or dictatorship.