The stunning modesty of the Supreme Court

‘The king hath no prerogative, but that which the law of the land allows him’. So James VI & I was told by the courts in 1611 and so Boris Johnson has, in effect, been told today. There is something weighty, something dignified, about that. The Supreme Court’s ruling this morning, upholding the Court of Session’s earlier ruling on the lawfulness or otherwise of the government’s attempt to prorogue parliament, should be welcomed by everyone, be they a Leaver or a Remainer. 

Brexit, and its rights or wrongs, is both at the heart of this case and tangential to it.