It Seems It's A Legal Eagle That Got It Wrong.....

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/exclusive-pm-was-advised-by-attorney-general-suspension-was-lawful-11818599
Any PM has to rely on advice from experts, it seems on this occasion that advice was wrong. Will Geoff Cox get the old tin tac?

[Bobbisox1]

It’s a joke now,the whole thing is a mess that can’t be unraveled,

[spathiphyllum]

I don't really geddit.

Bojo asks the queen if he can suspend parliament.

Queen (AKA head of state) says yes.

End of surely?

[jim360]

I don't think he should get the sack. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, even if you believed in the case against the government, it was at least legally ambiguous. The High Court ruled with the government, the Scottish Court ruled against. So Cox's advice may have been proven wrong but it wasn't *obviously* wrong.

[Bobbisox1]

As an aside,what will Abbott and Chakrabarti say when asked about the private schools issue ????

[vulcan42]

Is it possible the Attorney General is right and the supreme court got it wrong?

[dannyk13]

//Is it possible the Attorney General is right and the supreme court got it wrong?//
Quite possible.Nobody is infallible.

[jim360]

You'd have to evaluate the legal position and scrutinise, and that is literally the job that the Supreme Court judges have. When all 11 of them agree there is very little scope for them to have been "wrong".

[TheChair]

//Is it possible the Attorney General is right and the supreme court got it wrong?//
I wonder if you understand the definition of the word "supreme"?

[ToraToraTora]

The supreme court by definition are not right or wrong they simply apply their judgement. We may disagree with it but if it's their judgement then it is "right" in the sense that their judgement is binding.

[spathiphyllum]

Did Boris lie to the queen about why he wished to suspend parliament?

[dannyk13]

There are quite a few articles in the morning papers stating that they were in fact wrong.

[furrypusscat]

I wonder if the judges were all remainers.

[jim360]

The Supreme Court reached no judgement on that point. I think it's an open question, and in the end the Court found that it was effectively irrelevant. What mattered, in their judgement, is the effect of the decision.

[jim360]

@danny -- well, obviously. But the law is the law and, as Farage, TTT, and others have said, the judgement is the judgement.

[vulcan42]

The Chair, I fully understand the word supreme. The supreme court have twelve members but only an odd number of them sit on a case. This is because if they cannot agree it goes to a vote, if they cannot agree then it means some of them are wrong, so logically it could mean that occasionally all of them are wrong.

[jim360]

Well, yes, but logically it's also far less likely for 11 people who have dedicated a lifetime and career to the study and interpretation of law, and who all agree, to be wrong, as opposed to one person who might have at least partly experienced some political pressure to reach a decision that was favourable to his prime minister.

[jno]

still looking for scapegoats, are we?

Boris will claim the credit for anything that goes right (should this ever happen), so he can accept responsibility for the things that go wrong.

[ludwig]

//The Supreme Court reached no judgement on that point. I think it's an open question, and in the end the Court found that it was effectively irrelevant. What mattered, in their judgement, is the effect of the decision. //

I think that's right. They seemed to say it's impossible for us to know the reasons why he prorogued parliament at this time and for so long because he hasn't bothered to explain them to us, therefore we can only make a judgement on the effect that it would have.

TTT is also correct to say they are not right or wrong. They make a decision, and the decision is binding, like a football referee.

[THECORBYLOON]

The Attorney General (AG) face his legal opinion to the PM. Two courts decided they could not overturn the prorogation but two higher courts decided they could.

If four hearings were needed to reach the final decision and most experts were proven wrong, I doubt the AG has done anything wrong.

That's not to say he won't be the scapegoat.