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Johnson must be beaten democratically. Not through appeals to the constitution

THE Queen's predictable decision to agree to prorogue Parliament for five weeks at Boris Johnson's request shows how empty are bids to defeat this right-wing coup through “constitutional” means.

If Labour was outmanoeuvred by the Lib Dems and Scottish National Party on Tuesday to drop immediate plans to try to bring down the government and instead engage in parliamentary games to defeat a “no-deal” Brexit, it now looks to have been outmanoeuvred too by the Prime Minister, whose unscrupulous pitch to shut down Parliament entirely throws down the gauntlet to the labour movement.

Labour's initial reactions appear to follow the same defeatist constitutionalism that led to Tuesday’s retreat. Jeremy Corbyn writing to Her Majesty for an urgent meeting might have been necessary as a matter of form. But no-one should have imagined for a moment that it would halt the Tories in their tracks.

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