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The language of politics is now so exaggerated it misleads. It is not true that those who denounce prorogation are “hysterical”; they are shocked, worried and angry. That would describe Tory

grandee, Chris Patten, who wondered recently if many Leavers in the country might be “willing victims” of self-delusion and mendacity. Boris Johnson and those who dreamt up the proroguing

strategy to thwart Parliament ruling out no-deal have not staged a “coup”, they have unacceptably, but skilfully, manipulated parliamentary procedure. We in Britain are now being ruled by a

coterie of clever rogues. Above the fray, the Queen was nonetheless bound by constitutional convention to take her Prime Minister’s advice and prorogue. The outcome, as a _Daily Mirror_

headline told it, was clearly Pro-Rogue. Anti-Brexiteers are left with very few procedural devices to wrest control from a trickster Prime Minister and his advisers before the 31 October

deadline. Some say we are reliving the Weimar Republic. We are not, though, we are experiencing considerable erosion in the conduct of our political life. Were classes on curtailing

parliamentary democracy taught at Eton, you wonder, in the late 1970s? In Christian thinking the word used for a moment such as this is the Greek Kairos, a time when opportunity and danger

are both significantly intensified by contemporary events. A democratic culture thrives on civility and creative, participatory modes of decision-making, an informed electorate, not on a

diet of misinformation and rule by an unaccountable clique. The Archbishop of Canterbury reacted and has taken the opportunity to chair a Citizens’ Assembly at the request of senior members

of Parliament, a national consultation involving a hundred people with diverse viewpoints. He wishes to do something about the divisions and discord which have come to the surface and

intensified during Brexit negotiations. The hope is that some positive, consensual recommendations for a way forward will emerge. It is late in the day and a Civil Assembly will struggle to

make any impact. What is the danger we face? Now 25 Anglican diocesan bishops recently have come together and defined the danger we are in. They spoke last week of the “ease with which lies

can be told and misrepresentation encouraged” and asked that “leaders must be honest about the costs of political choices, especially for those most vulnerable”. They will doubtless be

castigated in social media. All evidence indicates that the poor will disproportionately suffer from no-deal’s economic consequences. The British Churches have formerly been reluctant to

enter a highly contested political arena in which the tired refrain of “meddling in politics” would rapidly become the dominant story. The legacy of Tory leadership to date has been to split

the country, describing one side in highly emotive language as “the people”, 17.4 million voters who wanted some form of Brexit, thereby turning the other side who voted Remain, just 3 per

cent fewer, into “non-people”. The will of the 12 million who didn’t use their vote in the Referendum, and the 18 million not on the electoral rolls is unknown. Thus it turns out “the

people” are a remarkably small proportion of the people. The public was misled and misinformed about the consequences of Brexit prior to the referendum. Those primarily responsible for this

misinformation are now in power, claiming that Parliament consented to a no-deal arrangement when they passed the Withdrawal Bill in early 2017 invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, and

pretending that “the people” did the same in 2016. They did no such thing. Nor did government ever suggest no-deal was the likely result of Brexit negotiations with the EU. Deception again,

lack of accountability and untruth. Throughout negotiations government has insisted that “keeping no-deal on the table” was/is a vital negotiating ploy. If the EU thought we would crash out,

come the hour, they would abandon the fixed positions demanded by the European Union’s basic principles, the four freedoms, notably ensuring the protection of free movement across the

British border in Ireland, and protecting an International Treaty lodged with the UN, the Good Friday Agreement. The hour is not far off. The EU is showing no signs of blinking first. Why

would they? Quite apart from wishing to discourage other member States from leaving the EU, the negotiators were/are not about to abandon the Republic of Ireland’s interests, a fellow member

State, nor threaten the interests of the whole island of Ireland. They have repeatedly said so. It is, and has been, implausible that they would, or will, blink at the last moment. Do those

clever tacticians in 10 Downing Street really believe that at the last minute, through fear of a no-deal, the EU will suddenly go back on three years of holding firm on its “red lines”,

unanimously supported by 26 European countries? Do they believe that, like themselves, the EU and its negotiators are deceivers, playing games. Isn’t this like the proverbial threat to

“shoot yourself in the foot” if the EU doesn’t back off, then accusing those who try to wrest control of the gun of being undemocratic, treachery and betraying their country? There can be no

doubt that the damage to the UK of pulling the trigger is far, far greater than the consequences for the EU, though those are not negligible. Finally, in the last few weeks, we have entered

further into fantasy land with some fantastic propositions. All this supposedly clever negotiating strategy is sold to the public through a new slogan, “let’s get it done”, by circumventing

the parliamentary log-jam which, of course, they in large measure created. Clever because the focus groups and private polling will have shown just how sick people are of the issue. Farage

is selling no-deal as “a clean break Brexit”. But, in reality, no-deal will merely open up a lengthy new chapter of negotiations in trade and other talks with the EU, conducted in a far more

negative environment. The Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has suffered the humiliation, of having a close adviser sacked without even being informed, by Boris Johnson’s de facto chief of staff,

Dominic Cummings. The Chancellor described his relationship with the Prime Minister as “fantastic”. It is certainly based on the founding fantasy of this government: that the EU will give

way at the last minute and, if it doesn’t, we’ll muddle through and all will be well, in other words every reputable economic commentator practitioner is wrong. Expect fantastic

relationships, announcements, and commitments from government to prevail for a while longer. What future for our politics if you can’t believe a word government says, ministers won’t appear

on radio and television, and if they do, avoid answering questions and the rogues prorogue our established institutions of accountability in the two Houses of Parliament at a critical

moment? Words to describe this state of affairs fail me. Hysteria? No. Just a dull foreboding and anxiety about children and grand-children’s future as mendacity and self-delusion seem to be

winning the day.