Boris Johnson finally got his zombie parliament – but now his Brexit masterplan is falling apart

Editorial: The supposedly clever plans of the prime minister and Dominic Cummings have turned to dust, and indeed backfired. But Brexit is still a national crisis

Welcome to Global Britain, 2019.

Even by the quaint and picturesque standards of the British parliament, the prorogation ceremony is a strikingly archaic affair: “My Lords, it not being convenient for Her Majesty personally to be present here this day, she has been pleased to cause a commission under the Great Seal to be prepared for proroguing this present parliament” is just one of the more comprehensible of the script lines to modern ears.

A collection of men and women variously dressed in tights (both genders), lush ermine robes, bicorne hats and horse hair wigs, nod and bow and recite “La Reyne le Veult” at the mention of each of the prosaic bills requiring the royal assent. In Norman French, it means that the Queen wishes it, even if the government of the day does not, necessarily. Nowhere is this more true than with the prosaically named European Union (Withdrawal) (No 6) Act, which is the one that, in effect, outlaws no-deal Brexit.