A six-step guide to becoming a dictator

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If last week's decision is upheld, it will alter the power Boris Johnson has. Either, it'll be diminished, or he'll move towards dictatorship territory.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will decide whether Boris Johnson’s attempt to prorogue Parliament is legal.

The ruling by the top court comes after 75 MPs and peers, led by the SNP MP Joanna Cherry, successfully appealed that the prorogation of Parliament was not legal last week in a Scottish appeals court.

Whatever decision is made by the Supreme Court, it will have a fundamental impact on politics and power as we know it.

If last week’s decision is upheld, it will alter the power Boris Johnson and any other future prime ministers have, as well as place historic importance on Scotland’s constitution and it’s impact on the UK’s constitution.

However, if the Supreme Court decides that the PM’s prorogation is not judiciable, then they will create a route to a dictatorship.

How exactly? Here’s a six-step guide to becoming a dictator of the UK.

  1. Make yourself appealing to the small number of UK citizens who are paid up members of your party at a time when election to its leadership means you’ll become P.M.
  2. Prorogue Parliament at a time and for such period as you find it to be in your interests to govern unfettered. 
  3. Have no fear of your prorogation being found illegal. Here you need to rely on the highest Court deciding that there’s no legal question about its propriety.
  4. Have no fear that there might be cries to change the law in view of the manifest democratic impropriety of your prorogation. There’s no need to fear this: it’s simple for you to prevent the law from being changed. Only Parliament can change the law, and you can now prorogue Parliament to suit your own purposes. (At this point, the Courts have set a precedent ensuring that this isn’t a judiciable matter.)
  5. Appreciate that if you’d like to govern unfettered for a protracted period, then you only have to prorogue Parliament for a goodly long while. 
  6. You might find that a bloody insurrection stands in your way. So you must get the police and the troops on your side. (Bribery might help: you set their pay.) 

Jennifer Hornsby teaches Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. 

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6 Responses to “A six-step guide to becoming a dictator”

  1. nshgp

    Prorogue Parliament at a time and for such period as you find it to be in your interests to govern unfettered.
    =========
    At this point your plan for Jeremy to rule fails.
    With Parliament prorogued, you can’t pass any laws

  2. nhsgp

    3 day’s of prorogation, when Labour and Tory PMs in the past have done it for longer isn’t what you claim

    MPs have had years to agree to a deal, and fund it. 80 bn a year of spending cuts needed to fund May’s deal. They haven’t come up with an alternative to a clean brexit.

  3. spiv

    Here’s another idea.

    1. Call a referendum and pass a law to enable it
    2. Promise to respect the result
    3. Pass a law to implement the result of the referendum
    4. Stand for election promising to implement the result of the referendum
    5. Use every trick in the book to delay implementation
    6. Refuse to implement result of referendum

  4. Tom Sacold

    All PMs have to face a General Election sooner or later. How many dictators in history can say the same?

  5. Dick Symonds

    Step 7: having predicted chaos unless you are in charge, create some by agents provocoteurs, repress it with Police and Army and call for greater powers.
    Step 8 : Declare a State of Emergency, and suspend Parliament indefinitely.

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