Made in the USA: The unraveling of a very British coup

The United States aims to maintain closer ties with Britain in order to maximize Trump’s agenda, which includes the Iran nuclear deal, economic trade relations and his bid at another presidency. The US president seeks to reverse Britain’s political and economic policies, particularly on the Iran Nuclear Deal, JCPOA, which the EU still supports. This is why Boris Johnson’s policy is a straight mimic of US policy, or rather Trump’s policy.

The following is an article in this regard written jointly by Investigative Journalist, Remo Newton, and staff writers of  Iran’s English language website of Press TV under the heading: “Made in the USA: The unraveling of a very British coup.” 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s illegal prorogation of Parliament marks a very British coup, but the failed attempt has been made in the USA.

After the UK Supreme Court voted recently against Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament, US President, Donald Trump, said he still supported the Prime Minister, claiming he will eventually turn out a winner on Brexit negotiations.

Against all norms of interference in another country’s internal affairs, Trump, who is himself under investigation, first campaigned for Boris Johnson’s bid as Prime Minister of Britain.

John Ross, a British Academic, Journalist and an Economic Advisor said “Britain is much too small a country to have its own independent policies, so therefore what Trump understands is that Britain either has to follow the European Union or it has to follow the United States, but that means important things for US policy, for example in the question of Iran.”

Ross said “The failed prorogation of Parliament was the first wave of attack in Johnson’s coup.” He warned “But it doesn’t mean that Trump and Johnson are going to give up their attack; they’re going to attack in other forms. That means this crisis is going to continue.”

The United States aims to maintain closer ties with Britain in order to maximize Trump’s agenda, which includes the Iran nuclear deal, economic trade relations and his bid at another presidency.

There is no way Trump will pull off his coup if Boris Johnson continues to side with the EU, however. The US president seeks to reverse Britain’s political and economic policies, particularly on the Iran Nuclear Deal, JCPOA, which the EU still supports.

This is why Boris Johnson’s policy is a straight mimic of US policy, or rather Trump’s wrong foreign policy.

Ross said “If you take the case of China, Britain has allowed Huawei, the big Chinese telecommunications giant, to participate in the British telecommunications industry, and Trump wants that cut out.”

Ross concluded “Trump of course doesn’t care what happens to the British economy. He wants the UK to follow the United States, so this is a very severe fight and that’s why it’s been going on for more than three years, even after the referendum and why British people have the deepest constitutional crisis… they’re not going to give up.”

UK PM Boris Johnson’s “dangerous” language while addressing MPs is just a symptom of the wider societal culture of violence.

Speaker of The House, John Bercow, was quick to point out during the session on Wednesday Sept. 27 that the recent culture in the Commons between the Prime Minister and MPs was “toxic” and the worst that he has known in his “22 years in the House”.

After returning from the UN General Assembly to answer to his illegal prorogation of Parliament, the UK Prime Minister summoned the memory of murdered MP Jo Cox during a speech against his Brexit opponents.

He said that if any MPs wanted to stop receiving death threats, they must back Brexit (Pro-European Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered during the EU referendum in 2016 by a man shouting “Britain first”).

Johnson’s remarks were in response to MPs testifying that they received death threats laden with the prime minister’s words against those who opposed his Brexit strategy – such as “surrender” and “betrayal”.

Unfortunately, the PM’s dangerous choice of words in Parliament is simply a reflection of the general societal malaise, where such vitriol may embolden even more hate crimes and violence.

Recent statistics have revealed a surge in the use or threat of action involving serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom.

The problem is exacerbated by an online world where people say whatever they like about whomever they like, without impunity.

And amid the ongoing Brexit fiasco, as Britons are divided over whether to stay in or leave the European Union, it is the prime minister’s duty to unify the nation and reduce the level of poison in politics.

But the controversial prime minister has repeatedly received backlash regarding his poor choice of words.

Last month, Boris Johnson’s cabinet was criticized for a Government campaign on boxes of takeout fried chicken that was meant to discourage knife crime.

Angry responses quickly followed on popular social networks, as some claimed that ‘#KnifeFree watermelons’ were soon to follow – referencing Boris Johnson’s 2002 article in which he called black people ‘piccaninnies with watermelon smiles.’

Besides being labeled a racist, Boris Johnson has also attacked the Muslim community on several occasions.

The Guardian unearthed a 2007 essay written by Boris Johnson, which further incited Islamophobic attitudes. He said that Islam has caused the Muslim world to be “literally centuries behind” the West.

Moreover last year, Johnson compared Muslim women wearing burqas to bank robbers and letterboxes. (Dear Johnson, let’s respect the fact that your own great-grandfather Ali Kemal, a Turkish politician, had been a Muslim.)

Are these vitriolic comments simply a means to gain independence from the EU, as many politicians are justifying? Do these attacks by prominent figures simply go unnoticed by the educated masses?

Therefore, if the PM succumbs to the will of parliament, and agrees to delay Brexit for another three months, then he will have broken his pledge of taking Britain out of the European Union (EU) by October 31, “do or die”.

More broadly, in view of the fact that Britain’s politicians have singularly failed to achieve a Brexit breakthrough, it remains to be seen if the Queen will now step up to rescue the country from indefinite political instability.

Indeed, there is now growing speculation as to what the Queen will do next, especially in the light of recent events and revelations which have blown the myth about her supposedly “apolitical” role.

The Queen agreed to Johnson’s request to prorogue parliament in highly contentious circumstances. According to Australian Constitutional Law Expert, Professor Anne Twomey, the Queen potentially acted “unconstitutionally” by agreeing to prorogation.

In a blog for the London School of Economics, Twomey argues that Johnson’s prorogation request was “unconstitutional” as it was “done for the purpose of avoiding a vote of no confidence or other action by Parliament against the government’s will”.

The Queen’s over-eagerness to help Johnson, in a climate of uncertainty about the PM's true intentions for suspending Parliament, coupled with revelations that the Queen helped former PM David Cameron win the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, has thrust the monarch into the centre stage of politics.

Writing in the Guardian recently, veteran British Journalist and Author, Nick Cohen, argues that the Queen is a “sham” head of state, for she can neither act as a “constitutional president” nor insist that the PM “obeys the rules”, as there are “too few rules in Britain”.

Cohen argues, by referencing prorogation and Cameron’s revelations, nor can the Queen argue anymore that she is “above politics.”

It remains to be seen what the Queen does next in this intensifying political and constitutional crisis.

Will the Queen surprise everyone by throwing caution to the wind by standing firmly behind Johnson’s “do or die” approach to getting Brexit over the line by the current deadline?

ME/MG