David Davis and the prerogative

The minister for Brexit was characteristically direct in his update in the Commons yesterday and as honest as his brief permitted. However, the SNP's Stephen Gethins (North East Fife) scored a direct hit yesterday to which Mr Davis failed to respond:

Does he agree, and has he told his boss the Prime Minister, that we could have saved this Government, their lawyers and Ministers, and High Court judges a lot of time and effort had Parliament approved the Parliamentary Control of the Executive Bill that he brought before the House on 22 June 1999? It would have clearly restricted the use of the Crown prerogative until

“the assent of the House of Commons has first been obtained”,

including

“to exercise executive powers not conferred by statute”.

The member for Haltemprice and Howden was right then and is on dodgy ground now.

Warning: there is more on democracy vs. dictatorship (or ochlocracy) to come tomorrow.