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Is there a British coup occurring? Well, not really. As one demonstrator from the Shires pointed out on prime time TV, “I don’t see any tanks.”  Of course there are no tanks; this is England and in times of crisis we are more likely to be found handing out tea and sympathy than storming the Bastille.

What has happened though, is that we have all learned some new phrases and words and even the historic context of them:

Whip: this week many Government Members of Parliament defied the Whip and voted against the Government to try to make the Prime Minister write to the EU requesting an extension to the withdraw date currently set for October 2019. Whip comes from the activity of using a Whip to keep hunting dogs in order. So now we have 21 feral conservative members of Parliament running around out there (although they continue to occupy their normal seats on the Government Benches). These include two ex-Chancellors and the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill.

The serious outcome of this is that they will not be allowed to stand as Conservative candidates at the next General Election. This will enable Boris Johnson to clear the Conservative Remainers and fight the election on a hard Brexit mandate and potentially head off The Brexit Party led by President Trump’s ally Nigel Farage. The Brexit party could easily split the right-of-center vote, which could then cause a hung Parliament or even a coalition of the left including Labour and The Scottish National Party (SNP). The SNP will demand a pound of flesh for supporting Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party. The Labour Leader will be extracting another Scottish Referendum and split the Union.

Prorogue parliament: The act of suspending Parliament to make sure no one passes any laws that you don’t like, i.e stopping the opposition, stopping the Government from leaving the EU, forcing through a “No Deal Brexit.”

The Prime minister did manage to get royal assent to the proroguing and has reduced the time that Parliament will be open. He claimed the reason was to close Parliament to then open it again to allow for a Queen’s speech. This is where the Queen reads aloud a speech written by the Government upon a new opening of Parliament after Black Rod (Editor’s note: the person principally responsible for controlling access to and maintaining order within the House of Lords and its precincts, as well as for ceremonial events within those precincts.) has banged on the door.

Another phrase being bandied about is “a humble address”, which is an opposition motion asking the Queen to intervene. Well, not really, it just becomes something that is binding on the Government if voted on by the House.

It is now being suggested that Johnson may defy Parliament by ignoring the instruction to ask for an extension or even write a letter at the same time to the EU, which effectively says: “hey, you know that letter we wrote? We don’t really mean it, please ignore” or words to that effect.  

So where does this leave us? There are still many possibilities, but a general election seems certain. Boris Johnson has tried to call one and failed, but will keep trying. The Opposition Parties are trying to get the delay legislation baked in before allowing it to go ahead, even suggesting they will delay a general election until such time as the EU has agreed to a three-month extension.

All outcomes are possible: A general election before or after October 31, another extension to article 50 delaying Brexit or even crashing out on October 31.